Don't bore their socks off

In response to a post from Carmel Reynen on Facebook recently.  Lisa Vassallo in a comment said "I would like to know what people are doing to keep it all going." The conversation was all about our family history research and passing it on. 

My lengthy response was along these lines (I have edited and formatted it since I posted on Facebook).

A favourite picture of my Mum

Interest waxes and wanes. With 16 descendants I hope someone inherits the geneabug. My children all follow my blog and are most interested when I share an ancestor story. 

I let grandchildren enter data into my family history program (after I have backed it up) and I let them search it. They love looking for people with their own forenames or funny names, those that share a birthday or seeing how many people come from a certain town, country or village. 

The kids have enjoyed looking at my family website and creating the ancestor and descendant charts available there. 

Two of my children and two of my teen grandchildren have done DNA tests. They enjoy hearing about the results after I have done the hard slog of working out the matches.. 

Ancestor and old photos are another turn on, I have them all digitised and sit at computer with kids and go through them. I find anything we can do together at a screen piques their interest. 

Clock made by an ancestor

We have obtained three grandfather clocks made by an ancestor. These are each in a family home and are a constant reminder of the kids' heritage. 


We willingly lend precious artefacts to grandchildren to take to Show and Tell at school (it's always a relief when the items are returned). 

Stories of our 10 naughty convict and other black sheep ancestors give them a giggle. They are also impressed by the few famous cousins in our tree.

Sharing family snippets from Trove gets a  response. 

I try not to bore the socks off family members but to create an environment that provides opportunities for them to learn about their heritage.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink!

Closed Access

I am a member of four local genealogy/family history groups that provide access to print and digital resources for their members. The cost of purchasing, housing and maintaining these collections is high so it is important that members who provide the $$$ for these collections should be able to access them easily.

Two of these groups work with and are supported by their local libraries. Their family history resources are shelved in open access in the local libraries and are available to group members, the local community and visitors to the library during the hours the libraries are open seven days a week.

Family History Resources at a local library

The other two groups have their collections housed in rooms leased from local authorities. One group provides access to resources for sixteen hours per week during the middle of the day. The other group only  provides access on one weekday and one weekend day totalling about ten hours per month. For the remainder of the time the resources of these groups are locked away and not accessible by users.

One problem is that those societies who house their own resources rely on volunteers to open the rooms to fellow members and volunteers are thin on the ground. Sadly some groups don't want to share resources purchased with membership dollars with outsiders.

It makes me so sad to see these valuable collections locked away. Invariably I am otherwise engaged when the doors to these collections are unlocked so I miss out on gaining access.

If I find myself in the area where the collection stored at the local library and find myself with half an hour up my sleeve I can pop in for a quick spot of research.

I wish more genie groups would approach their local authorities and work on ways to make their resources more accessible. 

Please Provide Soft Copies...

Sharing my post from September 2013.

Five years down the track I understand that presenters are concerned about genies onsharing handouts they are given at Conferences. Somehow, as well as providing soft copies, we must educate our audiences to respect our intellectual property.

It is easier for organisers if they put the handouts in a secure area from which they can be downloaded by attendees but sadly some still haven't got this message.

-----------------------------------------------

Please Provide Soft Copies...

A simple system - Fling it in the folder

...we might even save a few trees.

I am trying really hard to cut down on the amount of paper I keep in my Geneacave.

This morning finds me scanning handouts from a conference I recently attended. Only one of the presenters in the sessions I attended (thank you Cora Num) at that conference offered handouts in a digital format. At the beginning of her talk Cora gave us the URL for her handouts, I was able to download the handout onto my tablet and annotate it as Cora proceeded with her talk.

I must say that I prefer a hard copy handout to no handout at all but soft copy is the way to go in the 21st century.

I don't keep hard copies of handouts, I scan them and file them into the Family History -
Presentations folder on the external hard drive where I keep all my genie stuff. (I have previously discussed my filing method in the Fling it in the Folder and subsequent posts).  The hard copies then find themselves in my recycling bin.

The scans are filed by presenter name and title eg Num, Cora Research tools for the digital age. If I was really organised I could add some tags but I find that I can usually find a document I need via the Windows search facility. I find it much easier to file a soft copy than to have to go through the whole scanning process.

There are many options for sharing handouts in various formats on the internet:  one's own website, Dropbox, Facebook, Google Drive, Prezi, and Slideshare are just some options.

I realise that presenters may be concerned about the intellectual property of their work and not want to post in a public forum. In this case they could collect the email addresses of those who want a soft copy and send it out; this could be rather tedious if several hundred people want the presentation. They could offer to send copies of the presentation by return email to those who request it. Handouts could be saved to a private page on Facebook. Where there's a will there's a way.
Organisers of large conferences should make provision for the storage and delivery of  presentation notes to attendees. Smaller local groups and societies may not have the resources or expertise to manage this; presenters need to be mindful of this and ensure that their audiences can easily access digital copies of presentation notes.

I am wondering if other genies prefer hard or soft copy handouts.

From now on they'll have to ask

Am I being Bah Humbug?

A while ago I found an unsourced tree that had quite a number of my ancestors listed online at a fellow genealogist's website. I immediately thought how mean-spirited or lazy this chap was for not sharing sources. It didn't bother me personally as I was using his site for clues from which I went off to seek sources.

I've been mulling over his practice for some time and think I may follow his lead. I like to share and collaborate with fellow genies, that's why I have my tree on the web in a public space. What I expect is that if anyone republishes what they find at the GeniAus Family site they will acknowledge their source.

I regularly see on Ancestry and now on MyHeritage  bits and pieces from the notes I share copied into online trees without acknowledgement. What makes me giggle is that I am a poor typiste and make quite a few keyboarding errors, these are replicated in those trees. Copy and Paste has a lot to answer for.

I stopped putting photos on my GeniAus Family site  when I saw so many of them subsequently appear on Ancestry, I have yet to see one sourced as coming from me. Could so many distant cousins really have copies of those photos in their collections? The photo with the most shares, an image of my Kealy ancestors' home in Ballyfoyle, was taken on my last trip to Ireland. As I have another trip to Ireland planned I'm going to try for a sharper image which I may just keep for myself.

The original photo of the Ballyfoyle home from which the shared one was cropped

The cropped and enhanced (by me)  photo I find all over the place

I am about to upload an update to my site that includes names, dates and places but no sources or notes. I know that some folk will still copy my stuff but if they want more information they will have to ask.

Am I being mean-spirited?

Green Leaves

Decrapifying is my present household activity. I am trying to clean up and clear out some of the stuff we have accululated in over 40 years of marriage so that, in the not too distant future, we can relocate to a more modest residence.

Of course I can't do this all the time so I am doing some decrapifying in my genealogy space. I have been a member of Ancestry since the olden days and I can't remember when they introduced those shaky green leaves but I know that I have never taken any notice of them. So my first decrapyfying geneatask has been to get rid of those leaves - an interesting exercise.

The leaves seem to multiply overnight so that I am making very slow progress.
 So many of the hints are for events that are already in my Ancestry private tree (a pruned down version of http://www.geniaus.net). Dera Ancestry, I'd rather have fewer hints that lead me to new information.

 I can't understand why Ancestry throws up hints from foreign countries for people who were totally BMDed in Australia or England.

 Over the years I have generously shared gedcom files with other people. I get all excited when a green leaf leads me to an ancestor on a shared tree and then get annoyed (with myself for  prior sharing) when I find my info posted on someone's public tree. I keep my info up to date and correct my errors when I find them - these people don't!

 I was pleased when one genie I contacted after being directed to her tree removed the misinformation there but she told me she had copied it from another tree........Deep breath.

  In spite of my frustrations I have found some good leads to check out. Probably 1/25 of the leaves bear fruit for me. So I will attack my next 35 pages of hints tonight.  I wonder how many I'll have in the morning.

Bookmarks

One of my fave Edtech people, Richard Byrne this week posted an article "Tools and Strategies for Sharing Bookmarks" in response to a reader "who was looking for an alternative to Delicious for bookmarking and sharing bookmarks. .

I was surprised to see that he omitted Evernote as a tool for this purpose. Several years ago when Delicious changed hands I turned to Evernote for saving my bookmarks. Since then Evernote has taken over as my virtual memory.

I am wondering aboout other genealogists' bookmarking practices and if those who are Evernote users use some other tools to save and share bookmarks.

Incidentally you can see my two shared Evernote notebooks (that include lots of bookmarks) here:

Genealogy: https://www.evernote.com/pub/geniaus/Genealogy
Technology: https://www.evernote.com/pub/geniaus/technology

Happy to renew my sub to Ancestry

I have been trying to locate some descendants of my dad's Aunty Polly for over 25 years but have failed dismally.

I have found various references to members of the family on The Ryerson Index, in Cemetery indexes and via Trove. I have quite a few photos of Polly's two children in my Dad's and Uncle's photo albums which I have wanted to share with their families.

You can guess what's coming. Earlier in the week I logged on to Ancestry and, as one does from time to time, did a new search for Polly's married name, McDonnell, to see if there was anything new around. I found a reference to Polly in a private tree. I quickly sent off a message to the tree owner.

B I N G O  Last night I got a response from the owner of the tree, Polly's grandson, with the news that his father, my Dad's first cousin, is alive and well in Queensland and interested in family history and stories. My new found second cousin sent me some info, I sent him some, he sent more, I am getting some more together to send him today. The great information exchange is on.

Sometimes (ok often) I grumble about the annual fees I have been paying to Ancestry for ten years but today I am so happy that I have unfettered access to their offerings without which I would never have found this lost branch of the family.

Trove Tuesday - Christmas Shopping

Although I found several images from a search for "Christmas Shopping" on Trove most of them had copyright restrictions that prevented me from sharing them on this blog.

The image I have chosen is oneof the many from the Australian War Memorial's collection that comes with these Terms of Use "You do not have to seek permission to use the Memorial's images for your personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation. You must seek permission to use the Memorial's images for commercial publication."

The image is entitled "MELBOURNE, VIC. 1942-12-21. A MEMBER OF THE AIF HAS DIFFICULTY KEEPING HIS MONEY FROM HIS WIFE DURING A CHRISTMAS SHOPPING EXPEDITION."

Mr GeniAus can empathise with this serviceman. Times never change!

Thanks to The Australian War Memorial for allowing members of the public to share their photos.

Caveat Emptor

Sharing my tree online brought me
my only photo of ancestor Catherine Molloy

Caveat Emptor - let the buyer beware is a phrase I often use in relation to genealogy. If I was a Latin scholar I could come up with a phrase that when translated said "Let the genealogist beware."

I am  talking about taking information from online trees on face value without checking the veracity of the claims contained therein.

I was challenged by Bookbook's recent post in which she said "We're encouraged to upload our family trees to the web and make them open to the public. The idea is that distant relatives will make contact and information can be shared, that images and documents can be easily shared and that information from other trees can be merged into your own.

DON'T DO IT!"

I just had to put my thoughts on this issue out in the blogisphere. My message regarding publishing family information on the web is "Do it" - Be generous and share.

In defence of public trees Boobook goes on to say "It's not all bad. There are some gems among the dross. I have made contact with relatives to our mutual benefit. I have found some wonderful photos and documents. I have even been able to extend some branches of the tree back a generation or two and add a few twigs. But I've learnt to be very, very wary." 

She states "there are thousands of public family trees and they are chockers with errors". I certainly agree with that BUT these trees can be useful. 

We can use the information found in them as hints to check sources and verify or disprove the assertions made. I have found many links to family members from unsourced trees that appear on Ancestry and other sites. These hints have given me leads which have helped me conquer my brick walls, and as Boobook says distant relatives have made contact and information has been shared. I am most grateful for the corrections my contacts have suggested to the data in my online tree (we all make mistakes). 

Because I have shared my research online I have received copies of certificates and photographs including precious photos of direct ancestors for whom we had no photos whatsoever. I particularly treasure the only photo I have of my great-grandmother, Catherine Molloy, that my second cousin once removed, Tony Molloy, sent me. 

So, please share your information and use online trees as resources but as Boobook says "be very, very wary."

"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Galatians VI)

A Feel Good Experience.

The most read post on my blog is one I wrote in 2011 "John Bertram Chatfield - Trans-Tasman ANZAC Day blog Challenge". I don't know why this is but maybe because it was about someone

My Grandmother, Ethel Jane Pusell

dear to my heart, my maternal grandmother and her first husband.

I was thrilled to receive an email from a Society today which in part said " I would like your permission to use your blog  (posted Monday Apr 22 re Anzac day challenge) for our members. The idea is to give reluctant writers a good story to read and discuss the format you used to write on John Bertram Chatfield as a guide for their own story. Last year some members attended a workshop on using the national library records to research their WW1 veteran and, I believe, some, including myself, need to write up their stories."

Of course I wrote back immediately, I am thrilled that something that I wrote might help others get involved in writing their family stories. 

It is so good to realise that my blogging efforts can help others.

A Geneameme from Crissouli

Crissouli on her "As they were" blog asks genealogists to answer a few questions. Now Crissouli calls this a questionnaire but I am labelling it as a geneameme. How about joining in?

Here are my responses that I am also going to copy into my private Book of Me, Written by You blog:

QUESTIONNAIRE

1. What is the most important detail you want to find about your  ancestors?
I want to know all about them, I want to put flesh on the bones of the dry old dates and facts in my family tree. I want to hear these stories, I want to know about how they lived and about their feelings. Were they happy with their lot in life? Did they have ambitions? Were they able to fulfil their ambitions? 

2. Do you buy certificates?
I purchase certificates for all my direct ancestors. When I am stuck I might buy a certificate for a collateral line. Sometimes I buy a certificate because of a fascinating story about a great uncle all distant cousin but mostly for indirect ancestors I rely on free will second resources.

3.  Do you belong to a paid subscription site, if so, which one/s?
At the moment I have full subscriptions to ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.com. I also have a subscription to the new Biographical Database of Australia.

4. What has been your 'best' find?
This changes on a daily basis. Finding a grandfather clock made by Mr Geniaus' ancestor and having it shipped to Australia was a great buzz. Closer to home finding an obituary for my ancestor, Bridget Ryan, at the Forbes family history group opened up a whole new branch of my family.

5. Who is your favourite ancestor and why?
Elizabeth Phipps, the convict. I would love to know which of her partners is my direct ancestor.

6. What are you looking for on a regular basis? 
Anyone who is related to me.

7. Do you belong to any genealogy group, or family history society?
I belong to a couple of local groups, the Hawkesbury Family History Group and the Ku-ring-gai Historical Society. I enjoy the educational opportunities offered by local societies and friendships formed with people with shared interests. I am also a member of the Society of Australian Genealogists and the Society of Genealogists in the UK.

8. Do you belong to any Facebook or other social media genealogy groups? Would you join if there was one available?
I belong to several Facebook genealogy groups and manage one for a society. Google plus is however the social media tool I prefer for genealogy. I mainly use Twitter to broadcast messages from events.

9. Have you ever volunteered to transcribe, index etc.? Would you be interested in doing so? 
I have not taken part in any indexing projects but I regularly correct text on Trove.

10. What is your personal reason for being involved with genealogy/family history?
To discover the stories of my ancestors and to leave a legacy for future generations.

Indiscriminate sharing

I was surprised and disappointed yesterday when I saw a pretty poster listing shortcuts for Google Search go viral on Google+ and then spread to other social media and blogs.

What I found disturbing was that a number of genealogists and educators shared this outdated resource without, I suspect, proper evaluation or looking at the reference cited on it , http://www.google.com/insidesearch/tipstricks/ .  If they had checked this source they would have found that it took one to a webpage that had no resemblance to the poster that had been shared. Of course, the unknown author may have been indicating that he used the Google tips and tricks page as a resource to write his poster but I could find no mention of the ~ tilde search on the page.

The poster is attractive and set out various Google shortcuts in a concise and easy to follow way. As soon as I looked at it I noticed a glaring error, the poster told one how to use the ~ tilde  (synonym) search that was one of my favourite Google search tools before it was pulled by Google earlier this year, http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2277383/Google-Kills-Tilde-Search-Operator.

I made a couple of comments on Google plus+ posts about this inaccurate resource but obviously no one took any notice of this cranky old bird.

Particularly disturbing is that when doing their genealogy research genealogists talk about checking the veracity of information before they publish it by checking all references that have been cited and by checking on an author's credentials. Now this resource has been freely shared even though the person originally responsible for the work has not been cited, the date of original publication has not been given and the reference cited on the poster does not lead to the information found in the poster.

I ask you, genealogists, are you guilty of double standards? Before you post links and resources in various social media channels do you apply the same rigid standards that you do to the information in your family histories?

Golden Rules

I was alerted by Julie Goucher on Google+ today to these Golden Rules from GotGenealogy.com . I like the way it emphasizes sharing in numbers 9 and 10.

I liked the list so much that I have downloaded it here for my reference and for the interest of those who may not have seen it before.

Please Provide Soft Copies...

A simple system - Fling it in the folder

...we might even save a few trees.

I am trying really hard to cut down on the amount of paper I keep in my Geneacave.

This morning finds me scanning handouts from a conference I recently attended. Only one of the presenters in the sessions I attended (thank you Cora Num) at that conference offered handouts in a digital format. At the beginning of her talk Cora gave us the URL for her handouts, I was able to download the handout onto my tablet and annotate it as Cora proceeded with her talk.

I must say that I prefer a hard copy handout to no handout at all but soft copy is the way to go in the 21st century.

I don't keep hard copies of handouts, I scan them and file them into the Family History -
Presentations folder on the external hard drive where I keep all my genie stuff. (I have previously discussed my filing method in the Fling it in the Folder and subsequent posts).  The hard copies then find themselves in my recycling bin.

The scans are filed by presenter name and title eg Num, Cora Research tools for the digital age. If I was really organised I could add some tags but I find that I can usually find a document I need via the Windows search facility. I find it much easier to file a soft copy than to have to go through the whole scanning process.

There are many options for sharing handouts in various formats on the internet:  one's own website, Dropbox, Facebook, Google Drive, Prezi, and Slideshare are just some options.

I realise that presenters may be concerned about the intellectual property of their work and not want to post in a public forum. In this case they could collect the email addresses of those who want a soft copy and send it out; this could be rather tedious if several hundred people want the presentation. They could offer to send copies of the presentation by return email to those request it. Handouts could be saved to a private page on Facebook. Where there's a will there's a way.

Organisers of large conferences should make provision for the storage and delivery of  presentation notes to attendees. Smaller local groups and societies may not have the resources or expertise to manage this; presenters need to be mindful of this and ensure that their audiences can easily access digital copies of presentation notes.

I am wondering if other genies prefer hard or soft copy handouts.

www.geniaus.net

One of my aims is to update my family tree data on my Geniaus family site, www.geniaus.net,  every two or three weeks or more often if I make significant changes or additions to the database.

http://www.geniaus.net

As I have been travelling for a couple of months this has not been done since February. Although I have a lot more data to enter I have uploaded an updated file this morning. I had promised the new cousins who have found me on the web and shared info while I was travelling that I would do so on my return.

Thank you those those new folk who have shared their data with me, your collaboration is making my family site a richer resource for those who share our ancestry. If I have not added your extra information yet please bear with me. I am in catchup mode and will do so soon.

I cannot overestimate the value of publishing one's data on the internet via a family sites, blog posts or other media. Sharing leads to valuable connections.

Overdoing the Kindness

Because I like to have resources at my fingertips I have for several years had a World subscription to Ancestry.co.uk and and a subscription to Findmypast.co.uk.  I may have done one or two lookups for cousins but the personal subscription I pay for is basically for my use.

Do you know what annoys me?  I am irritated when I see, on various lists and forums, offers from genealogists to perform free lookups of these and similar subscription sites for others. While RAOGK are to be commended this practice of offering free lookups and the subsequent sharing of resources from subscription sites must surely have a negative impact on those who subscribe. 

Does the availability of free lookups deter wouldbe subscribers? Does the availability of free lookups have an impact on the cost of subscriptions?

I wonder what the subscriptions sites think of this growing practice?  Does it violate their terms of service?

Am I being mean-spirited?  

Yet Another Connection

It never ceases to amaze me how many people contact me after doing a Google search for an ancestor or family member.

www.geniaus.net

They are directed from their Google search to either my family website or this blog. A few of these ask me for further information on their ancestors, some ask me to do their research for them, some are from people who wish to correct my data and some are from people who share information that may unlock a family mystery for me while helping them break down a brick wall. This morning brought a new connection that promises to share some juicy information on early 20th century cousins.

I used to allow others to download a gedcom file from my website but since I have found my data appearing on other websites and on Ancestry I have disallowed this. I know it is my data because these people have copied holus bolus and even included the sometimes cryptic notes I have attached to people in my tree. So much of the stuff people have copied years ago is now also out of date. I also started to put old family photos on my website but stopped this practice when I found them appearing unsourced on Ancestry. I do not post certificates on the internet as I believe that, in many cases, this breaches copyright.

What I find interesting is that many people think that their trees are 'done' once they have copied some data. If you take some info from my site please firstly verify the sources yourself (some of my stuff isn't well sourced) and please revisit regularly to see if I have added to or amended the records for the persons in whom you have an interest. My site is dynamic, a work in progress, and is continually being updated.

I usually update my site every couple of weeks but, as I have been travelling since late January, only got around to updating it  to reflect my last three months of dabbling yesterday. Already this is out of date as last night and today I spent quite some time fixing sources, visiting new indexes on Ancestry, and searching new sources like the digitised newspapers at Singapore's National Library.

Social Media Dilemma Revisited

My post, 

Where do you comment? A social media dilemma

, six months ago in which I asked where should I post my comments on blog posts drew some excellent comments. As a result I developed a personal policy that I would post my comments directly on the blog in question.


In the light of recent developments in the social media arena with the introduction of Google+ and the +1 Button I am reflecting on my dilemma and thinking about my policy on linking to (promoting) my blog posts and commenting on posts written by others.


I am aggravated when people with multiple online personalities tweet the same link in quick succession via two or more accounts, I see this as a form of spam. I will continue to tweet only as Geniaus and only tweet links to my blog posts once.  


Only in exceptional cases will I use Facebook to post links to Geniaus blogposts. I will use the GeniMates Facebook page to announce to its fans when new profiles are added to the GeniMates blog. 


As many of my genealogy contacts are now on Google+ I will use that platform to promote my new blog posts. I choose this in preference to Facebook because I can easily target my posts to my Genealogy Circle and not clog up the streams of people in my other circles.

I try to comment on a few blog posts each day. Everyone enjoysa bit of positive reinforcement. As I believe that blogging is a a two-way street , a medium for online conversations, it is important to connect with those who have gone to the trouble of sharing  their experiences and knowledge with me. The number of comments I make each day is dependent on the quantity, quality and relevance to me of the blog posts that day.

Some of the sharing options on my Android Tablet

As a result of the responses I had from bloggers to my initial dilemma post I will continue to comment directly on a blog. By commenting there I can add to the conversation the blog posts have evoked. If I were to only comment on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ about the posts those comments would stand alone and out of context from the original post.

I will use the +1 button on Google+ to notify my mates on Google+ of blog posts I find interesting. I do not need to complete a weekly 'best-of' as the +1's on my Google profile do that for me. I will use the share option on Google+ to tell others about those posts I find particularly noteworthy.

When findling links to blog posts on Twitter I will continue to retweet those I have found interesting or noteworthy and perhaps add a short comment to the retweet.

The majority of the notifications I have come via my RSS feed. I mostly read these on my Android tablet which gives me an option to easily share via a number of platforms. I select the most appropriate for each post I wish to share.

 I wonder what preferences or policies other genealogists have for giving and receiving blog comments.
.

Killing a tree or two

We recently made contact with my father-in-law's first cousin and are going for a looooong drive to meet her on the weekend. Because ancestors died early on my husband's side his father lost contact with them and he did not know his cousins and their offspring, so this branch of the family is a surprise package.

In her late eighties this lady is looking forward to our visit as we are to seeing her. Usually when exchanging information I burn relevant files and photos onto a CD or DVD  and direct the contact to take a look at my online family site. I presume this elderly lady doesn't have a computer.

It bugs me when I sometimes see reckless use of paper in the genealogy world. Although I am not an environmentalist I am committed to preserving our natural resources so am feeling quite guilty as I print off sheaves of  paper for the new cousin. I hope mother nature will forgive me for this transgression; I really do like trees.

These are the things I am taking along:

* A pedigree chart of her father (who is the brother of Mr Geniaus' Great-Grandfather)
* Descendant charts from the earliest ancestors on two lines
* Individual reports on each direct ancestor plus great-grandfather and grandfather
* Copies of all certificates, wills, service records, documents, newspaper clippings I have relating to these direct ancestors
* Photos of ancestors graves and places in England where they lived
* A copy of the only photo we have of  great-great grandfather
* A selection of photos of descendants on our line

This collection is well over 100 pages. Is that overkill? (she is into family history) Is there something I have overlooked?

Sharing pays dividends

I have shared my family tree on my own site, Geniaus.net, on the internet with only details of living persons supressed. Anyone doing a simple Google search for our common ancestors will usually find my site listed in their list of hits. By doing this I am allowing others to copy and paste my information thus sharing the fruits of my labours with them.

Some family historians closely guard the data in their trees and require others to apply for a username and password before searching their sites for possible matches. My open policy has paid dividends for me.

Most weeks I hear from someone who has shared ancestry or a relationship to someone in my tree. Some of these people ask for the world ie "Can you send me all the certificates you have for the family of XXX"? Most people, however, offer some small pieces of information to add to that I have gathered.

Two weeks ago Carl was checking some records on my site and was able to correct some misinformation I had published, he generously emailed me a copy of an original birth certificate for the person in question. This morning I was contacted by a woman who shares my husband's paternal 2nd great-grandfather; she too has offered to send me certificates for her line.

This week a second cousin of my husband's contacted us - we did not know of his existence. He was thrilled to have found a major part of his family history published on the internet; I immediately added to my database the extra information he gave me on his line. He also has, in his possesion, photographs of two of my husband's maternal great-grandparents that he is generously sending us together with copies of other family documents. My husband has never seen pictures of these Gillespie great-grandparents.

If you wish to make connections with others use the internet to get your information out into the public domain and make it easily accessible to others.

In genealogy, as with other areas, It pays to advertise.