Top of the Pops

Every so often I take a look at my stats to see what has been my most popular post of all time (according to Blogger). This morning I noticed that My Family History through the Alphabet post P is for ... Images has edged out Shiny new toy, an old Carnival of Genealogy post.

Which of your posts have attracted the most readers?

Family History Through the Alphabet – Z is for … Zealots

zeal·ot/ˈzelət/

Noun:

A person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political, or other ideals.  Synonyms: fanatic - bigot - devotee   (Source Dictionary.com)

This is my final post in The Family History through the Alphabet Challenge proposed by Alona Tester of Gould Genealogy. 

I thank Alona for devising and curating this task that has produced a host of interesting and informative reading around the topic of family history mostly from Australian genealogists with the addition of some fantastic contributions from our friends over the seas.

By sharing our stories and data with the genealogy community we can educate, communicate and collaborate with others. The field of genealogy has been enriched by each contribution to this challenge. 

Congratulations to all who have participated in this challenge and added accolades to those who managed to submit 26 posts.

This post is dedicated to the challenge participants, a group of Genealogy Zealots, who are uncompromising in pursuit of your ancestors.

Family History Through the Alphabet – Y is for …Y not?

Although I don't expect everyone to share my fascination with technology and its application to many genealogy functions I hope that genealogists will approach the use of technology with an open mind and not dismiss it without consideration.

I realise that anyone reading this blog post probably already employs various applications and tools as they search for their ancestors and record their family stories. However when I meet many genealogists at meetings, libraries and conferences I find that they do not share our positive attitude towards technology

In my penultimte post for this challenge, I entreat you to be an advocate for technology. Share your enthusiasm with those you meet, show them how technology will help them organise their data, keep up to date with genealogy news, connect with new cousins and take part in online learning activities.

* Offer to give a talk on your favourite app, resource or tech toy at a local library or society
* Mentor your genimates who aren't familiar with technology
* Write articles highlighting technology for your society's newsletter
* Offer to set up a social media presence for your society and teach members how to access it.

Y not join me and become an advocate for the use of technology in genealogy?

Family History Through the Alphabet – X is for … keep it open

This morning I am in Monte Carlo looking out at one of the hairpin bends for the Monaco Grand Prix and playing catchup on my ABC posts. My pace doesn't match that of those speedy vehicles that will roar past my balcony at race time but I anticipate that I may reach my finish line some time next week.

On most computers there is a little x icon in the top right hand window of  most windows and applications you open (if you use a fruity device it is on the left). Don't close it - take a little while to linger longer.

Engage in a little Tangential Genealogy. Keep that window or app open and eXplore a little. You just never know what treasures you may uncover if you dig down through the layers of that website or app.

You could even find a sledge hammer to knock down a brickwall.

Family History Through the Alphabet – W is for … Magic

Travelling around Europe for the past four weeks has seriously cut into my blogging time. As I am having a few quiet days in London I will endeavour to catch up on my alphabet posts.

I just don't get how Wi-Fi (or wee-fee as they say in Spain) works and I have no desire to find out. It falls into the realm of magic technology things that I love to use. Using Wi-Fi on my various devices (I am only travelling with two) I can keep up with genealogy news via various social media, write blog and Facebook posts for myself and my local society and maintain my genealogy website as well as dealing with family and personal matters.

Of all the fifteen hotels we have satyed in over the past four weeks only one, a Marriott, did not provide free Wi-Fi for guests; we have also come across many cafes and restaurants that give free access to patrons. When we board our cruise ship later this week we will also have free access.  Most new phones these days have Wi-Fi capability so before you set off on your travels learn how to enable it. It is so easy to be connected in this day and age.

For those who are more curious than I  Webopedia tells us "Wi-Fi is the name of a popular wireless networking technology that uses radio waves to provide wireless high-speed Internet and network connections." This article from How Stuff Works gives an explanation of how Wi-Fi works. 

Family History Through the Alphabet – V is for …Vacation

This post is a tad late because I am on VACATION. My mantra for this post is "All work and no play makes Jill a dull girl".

As much as I love genealogy and technology there are times when I must step away and smell the roses. So, for the next few weeks posts from me will be few and far between as I am presently on holiday overseas creating current family history with my mate, Mr Geniaus.

I will be posting about our adventures from time to time on ballau.blogspot.com.

U is for Universal

The world of technology is awash with acronyms. I am often challenged when giving a talk and someone asks "What does that *** stand for? Sometimes I know the answer; soometimes I don't.

It seems as though a few of these acronyms start with B so, for my U post, I thought I'd share a few U acromyms with you.

UPS Uninterruptible Power Supply - or protection for your precious tech toys. All I know about these isthat they protect your gear from power surges and that your're crazy if you don't use them. The Webopedia definition starts:

Short for uninterruptible power supply, a power supply that includes a battery to maintain power in the event of a power outage. Typically, a UPS keeps acomputer running for several minutes after a power outage, enabling you tosave data that is in RAM and shut down the computer gracefully.

URL  Uniform Resource Locator - is the web address one types into the search box of a browser to access that website. The URL for this blog is http://geniaus.blogspot.com. Wikipedia says

"In computing, a uniform resource locator (URL) is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource.

A URL is technically a type of uniform resource identifier (URI) but in many technical documents and verbal discussions URL is often used as a synonym for URI.^[1]"

USB Universal Serial Bus - is one of the many slots on my computer. It enables me to connect peripheral devices like external hard drives, scanners, cameras and phones to my computer. Many devices like my new smartphone connect via a micro USB. Wikipedia says:

"Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and communications protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices.^[2]"


Do U have any favourite U acronyms?

Family History Through the Alphabet – T is for … Ten

The obvious choice for this T post would be Trove from the National Library of Australia but I'll leave that to someone else. In a blog post yesterday James Tanner spoke about "My top ten, can't miss, websites"; and that gave me an idea for a post. I am going to highlight my Top Ten Tools for Genealogy in alphabetical order (library training reigns).

Blogger  Although I have toyed with moving over to Wordpress I find that, although it annoys me sometimes, Blogger continues to serve me well as a blogging platform that enables me to reach out to other genealogists. 

Chrome Presently my browser of choice I love Chrome because it works so well with the other Google products I use and has a fabulous collection of addons that I access from my toolbar to make my browsing experience efficient and painless.

Evernote My previous posts tell my Evernote story: Family History Through the Alphabet – E is for …Evernote, Evernote - the presenter's pal, Google Docs and Evernote, 

Family Historian I took a great leap of faith when I ditched my genealogy database package in favour of Family Historian. Some of my posts describe the process: Family Historian Progress, I'm on a winner with Family Historian, 

Familysearch As well as providing online access to many genealogical records Familysearch also publishes some useful blogs (I love Tech Tips) and the Familysearch Wiki. I have been fortunate to have early access to the new Familysearch Family Tree which is one of the most exciting initiatives for family historians in a long time.

Google Docs, I use this package daily as my Office suite and love that I can access my documents easily from all of my devices or public computers. Here is how I use it for genealogy: Google Docs and Evernote

Google+ My social network of choice where I can organise  my contacts easily into interest groups and target my posts to those who have similar interests. I have a huge circle of genealogy contacts here.

Picasa Google's free photo management tool that I use everyday to organise, edit retrieve and share my photos. It copes with my 90,000 superbly (and doesn't crash). 

Trove Our nation's treasure from the National Library of Australia has to be on my list. This site is the best thing since sliced bread.

Twitter Although I don't use Twitter as much as I did before Google+ arrived on the scene I think Twitter is the best tool for sharing news and ideas from conferences and events. By following designated hashtags from events I can vicariously attend the event or, if I am there, can contribute to such an experience for others in the Twitterverse.

As James said in his post "So there you have the top ten for today. Of course, I may change my mind anytime."

Family History Through the Alphabet – S is for … Coincidence

Each week I agonise over what my topic will be for the letter of the week. S has been no exception; I have been sitting here dithering and multitasking being distracted from the task at hand while the answer has been staring me in the face in the form of a nearly completed powerpoint presentation that is open on my task bar.

S is for coincidence - the topic of the Powerpoint is "Social Media for Family Historians" - a presentation I am preparing for a gig at Wyong Library next week. So my topic for this week has to be Social Media.

In my talk I'll be covering these points:

¡What is Social Media?

¡What does one need to engage via Social Media?

¡Social Media Categories

¡How can Social Media help my genealogy/family history research?

¡A closer look at Blogs, Facebook, Google+, Twitter

¡How does one get started in Social Media?

¡How does one manage Social Media? 

Like any good presenter I am defining my topic before launching into my spiel. These are the definitions I will share:

¡SEO Zodiac – Social Media is simply people having conversations online

¡

¡Online Schools – Social media is technically a means for social interaction through the web

¡

¡Answers.com – The online forms of communicating to the masses, which include blogs, microblogs, social networking sites and podcasts

¡Webopedia – A term used to describe a variety of Web-based platforms, applications and technologies that enable people to socially interact with one another onlinebe covering these 

And these are the categories of Social Media I will highlight:

¡Blogging - Blogger, Posterous, Weebly, Wordpress

¡Bookmarking - Delicious, Evernote, Pinterest , 

¡Commerical sites - Ancestry, Geni, MyHeritage, etc.

¡Genealogy Community Projects - Genealogists for Families Kiva Project

¡Genealogy Networking Sites  - GenealogyWise

¡

¡Microblogging - Tumblr, Twitter - (140 characters on Twitter)

¡Office packages with online collaborative functionality  -  Google Docs

¡Photo Sharing – BillionGraves, Find a Grave, Flickr, Instagram, Picasa

¡Professional Networking Sites – Linkedin 

¡Sharing Sites for Books, Documents, Presentations - Librarything, Scribd, Slideshare 

¡ Social Networking Sites - Facebook, Google+, Second Life 

¡Video sharing –  Vimeo, Youtube 

¡Wikis - Familypedia, Familysearch Wiki

If I was to continue with this post I would just be preaching to the converted as you, dear readers, have demonstrated your commitment to Social Media by reading this post. 

Hopefully by next Wednesday afternoon there will be a group of family historians from Wyong who share our passion for Social Media.

During the course of this blog series I have mentioned Social Media in these earlier posts:

Family History Through the Alphabet – B is for …Billion Graves
Family History Through the Alphabet – E is for …Evernote 
Family History Through the Alphabet – K is for …reaching out 
Family History Through the Alphabet - R is for  ... Online (Reading that is)

Family History Through the Alphabet – R is for …Online (Reading that is)

Every day I read news items, press releases, articles and stories about genealogy, not in books or hard copy magazines, but on my laptop, netbook, my Android phone and my Android tablet.

I read just about everywhere.On the train, in the car (preferably when Mr Geniaus is driving), in the air, at sea, in waiting rooms, in bed, while hanging on the phone waiting to talk to a real person and in the bathtub (haven't given a device a bubble bath yet).

My reading of monographs has suffered as I find that I am reading more and more short online texts and less lengthy real paper tomes.

So what do I read online?

First stop with my morning coffee is Google+, followed by a quick browse of Twitter, then it's onto Google Reader that manages my RSS feeds; I read several hundred blogs and have a few news alerts set up. Lastly I turn to Facebook, my least favoured social networking site.

I dip into Zite when I have time to see what suggestions and links it has for me. The topics I follow on Zite are  Android, Genealogy, Social Media and Technology.

For the daily news I check out the Sydney Morning Herald (not much genealogy news there) but a girl needs to keep up with the world around her.

If I have a spare few minutes I may dip into Trove. Tonight I have spent some time reading articles about my old school and I discovered some juicy bits about nuns that I will share some time on Trove Tuesday.

I am not really into ebooks preferring the smell and feel of paper for reading long texts but I do have a few digitised books saved in my Google Books account.

I use Librarything to keep track of the genealogy and other books that I read. I love the social networking aspects of this site that allows me to connect with other genealogists and see what they have in their libraries.

Whenever I have a few spare minutes I sneak in a bit of reading but do I still qualify as a bookworm?

What is the pattern of your online reading?

Family History Through the Alphabet – Q is for … Query

When we pose a Question to a database  or a website we are said to be querying the resource or making a Query.

Sometimes the results of our Queries when querying genealogy databases or websites are not as successful as we anticipate. In order for our queries to be successful we need to familiarise ourselves with the Quirks of the resources we are interrogating.

Large databases like Familysearch, Ancestry and the NSW Historical Birth, Death and Marriage Indexes and search engines like Google will have guides on their sites that give users tips for effective searching (or building queries).There are slight differences in the way that resources deal with our Queries.

If your queries are failing try seeking out these guides and invest some time in learning how to search each resource effectively. You may be surprised at the Quality of your results..

Family History Through the Alphabet – P is for … Images

P could be for photos or portraits but all images that genealogists collect are not photos. We collect a profusion of images that we digitise : vital records, baptismal certificates, military records of service, letters, handwritten notes, invitations, orders of service etc. Whatever you call them they create problems for people like me who are disorganised.

Are you able to retrieve an image a family member requests within a minute of being asked?

A collection of images that is not organised is like a book without an index, virtually useless if you need to retrieve something efficiently. There are evangelists around who spruik about the advantages and disadvantages of different methods of organisation; some people even part with good money to purchase books on organising ones images. You just need to find a method that suits you and stick to it.

So how do I do it? 

WARNING: this may not be the best or most efficient method but it works for me.

I treat photos and images of documents separately. There are three places where I store images:

Photos are organised using free Picasa software from Google. Stored on a portable hard drive (and backed up on another) are my 90,000+ photos. These are arranged chronologically in folders by date; earlier ones just by year, from the 1990s by year and month and from the 2000s by day. Each photo is tagged with one or more tags that describe the when, where, what and who of the image. Typical tags for a photo might be Rootstech, Salt, Lake City, 2012, Thomas MacEntee, Amy Coffin or Jill Patricia Curry, 1956, First Communion, St Vincents College Chapel, Potts Point or Restaurants, 2010, Sydney Opera House, Food and Drink (for one of my many photos of food).

When I travel the hard drive goes with me so that I can organise and tag on the go. Now that Qantas  has power outlets on planes used for international journeys I am able to use my time in the air fruitfully and arrive home with some of my stuff already organised.

Images of documents as described above are stored in folders according to my very simple Fling it in the Folder method. These are stored on the same portable hard drive as my photos (and backed up on another). Screendumps that I use in presentations are stored there in the folders I make for each presentation I prepare. Having the hard drive with me when I travel allows me to save images of new documents straight into one of  my folders once I have entered details gleaned into my Family Historian database,

Bits and Pieces found during web wandering Those images that I find interesting like genealogy cartoons I clip using the Evernote web clipper, tag them and file them away in Evernote. They may at a later date find their way into Picasa or a folder but, in the first instance, they are saved into Evernote where I can easily retrieve them.

Use whatever pleases you but if you can't put you hands on an image within a minute it's time to ponder a method that allow you to do so.

1920s images in Picasa

Family History Through the Alphabet – O is for …Catalogue

....or for those of you who are au fait with Library Lingo: O is for OPAC.

OPACs have made life so much easier for genealogists to prepare for visits to libraries so that maximum time can be spent using resources during those visits.  I remember being so proud when my first OPAC came online in the late 90s. It was a milestone in my library life that I should have recorded.

You don't know what an OPAC is?

An OPAC is an Online Public Access Catalogue; a library catalogue that one is able to access via a web browser to search for, identify and select library resources from a library collection's database. A dictionary gives this definition "A computerised system to catalogue and organise materials in a library (the kind that contains books). OPACs have replaced card-based catalogues in many libraries. An OPAC is available to library users (public access)."

If you don't already it is wise to get into the habit of seeking out resources from home when you are planning your next library research trip. I keep, in my research log, details of resources found on OPACs that I want to consult when next I get a chance to visit. 

I already have a list ready for my next visit to The Family History Library in Salt Lake City at Rootstech time next year. On my list is also a newspaper that appears to be available only in one library in Scotland. Hope springs eternal - I may get to Scotland one day to see it.

I'm not sure if these databases are OPACs; I would call them metaOPACs, Worldcat (The world's largest library catalog) is a resource that one can use to find out where in the world a particular resource can be found and, in Australia, a Trove search will give locations of resources.

Do you consult library OPACs prior to your visits?

See all my posts in this series at http://geniaus.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/family-history-through-alphabet.html

Family History through the Alphabet

Having passed the halfway mark in the Family History through the Alphabet Challenge that was set by Alona from Gould Genealogy I am having trouble remembering what I have written about in my posts.

As an aide-memoire as I continue with the challenge I am posting this set of links to my posts. As I progress towards Z I will continue to add further links.

Family History Through the Alphabet – A is for … Android

Family History Through the Alphabet – B is for …Billion Graves

Family History Through the Alphabet – C is for …it's a no brainer really (Computers)

Family History Through the Alphabet – D is…not for fingers and toes (Digitisation)

Family History Through the Alphabet – E is for …Evernote 

Family History Through the Alphabet – F is for …Greedy (Family Historian, Familysearch, Flip-Pal)

Family History Through the Alphabet – G is For …Shameless Self Promotion (Online Identity)

Family History Through the Alphabet – H is for …When all else fails (Help)

 Family History Through the Alphabet – I is for …where would we be without them? (ICT)

Family History Through the Alphabet – J is for …file types

Family History Through the Alphabet – K is for …reaching out (Kiva)

Family History Through the Alphabet – L is for …Straying (Tangential Genealogy)

Family History Through the Alphabet – M is for … You've got Mail (Email)

Family History through the Alphabet - N is for ... Browser (Browsers)

Family History through the Alphabet - O - is for ... Catalogues (Library OPACs) 

Family History Through the Alphabet – P is for … Images

Family History Through the Alphabet – Q is for … Query

Family History Through the Alphabet - R is for  ... Online (Reading that is)

Family History Through the Alphabet – S is for … Coincidence

Family History Through the Alphabet – T is for … Ten

Family History Through the Alphabet - ... U is for Universal

Family History Through the Alphabet – V is for …Vacation

Family History Through the Alphabet – W is for … Magic

Family History Through the Alphabet – X is for … keep it ...

Family History Through the Alphabet – Y is for …Y not?

Family History Through the Alphabet – Z is for … Zealots

Family History Through the Alphabet – N is for …Browser

Netscape Navigator was the first browser I used consistently to surf the web in the mid nineties after using Mosaic for my early explorations in cyberspace. If I remember correctly Netscape came installed on my computer and, if one didn't get it this way one had to purchase it. 

By Browser I mean a piece of computer software that provides a conduit for people to search for, find and access information on the World Wide Web. Wikipedia  tells me "A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web". So I guess I have it right!

When Microsoft introduced the free Internet Explorer 3.0 in 1996 I tried that out too. I also dabbled with Yahoo's search. As Yahoo was a directory rather than a search engine I did not use it too often preferring Internet Explorer. Then, after it was released, I was true to the Australian search engine ANZWERS for local searches until Mozilla Firefox came along in 2004. I had a long relationship with Firefox until around 18 months ago when I was seduced by Google's Chrome.

I dabbled with a few metasearch engines like Dogpile and  Mamma  in the early 2000's but these do not seem to have taken off. A metasearch engine simultaneously searches a number of search engines for you and aggregates the results in one list.

On my Android devices I have tried a few browsers and over a year ago switched from Opera to the Dolphin browser.

There are a couple of genealogy search engines around. As I don't have a very high opinion of the most popular one I am not even going to mention its name. I believe that carefully constructed searches on a general search engine will return better results than that product.

I believe that a book without an index is useless similarly if we didn't have an efficient browser to provide a gateway to the World Wide Web we would not be able to easily access all the wonderful genealogy resources in cyberspace.

Which browser do you favour?

Family History Through the Alphabet – M is for … You've got Mail

When L was announced as the letter for last week's challenge I immediately knew what I would write about - it was going to be L is for Listserv but my memory failed me when I sat at the keyboard to type my entry and I wrote about Links instead.

But never fear, magician that I am, I can turn an L into an M for this week's post - You've got Mail. As my focus in this series of posts is technology I am not talking about Snail mail but Email - the sort of mail that Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan's characters used as they fell in love over the internet in You've got Mail. 

For those who have been living under a rock this link will tell you all about Email.

This morning something unusual happened, I received a letter containing a genealogy report via snail mail. I don't know why as the person who sent it to me has previously sent me files by email. This person could have saved money by using email, I know they have internet and email so there would be no extra cost involved in emailing me, I also know they have access to a scanner so they could have attached the report to an email saving on the cost of ink and paper and they could have saved on postage. The first benefit of email for genealogists is that it allows for sharing of data quickly and economically.


Since the mid nineties genealogists have been able to use email to join mailing lists to communciate with others with similar interests. The first such lists that I used were Rootsweb Mailing Lists that "can help you find information about your ancestors and connect you with people who have research interests similar to yours". There are now over 30,000  genealogical mailing lists at Rootsweb. If you cannot find a list at Rootsweb that caters to your interests you can set one up. In spite of the emergence of social media the Rootsweb Mailing Lists are still going strong. I find a few messages in my emailbox each day from the various lists to which I belong. They are still a valuable resource for genealogists today.

The wonderful thing is that Google seems to index most of the posts to such Mailing lists so if you put an ancestor's name into a Google search you may be directed to a listserv post. What is frustrating is that some of the messages on a mailing list from 10 years ago or more are linked to dead email addresses so it is difficult to contact the original messenger.

For my tip for this week please read my blog post from 2008, Static Email Addresses.

If you are not a member of any Mailing Lists please browse the collection at  Rootsweb Mailing Lists  and join a few, then you'll be able to say:

"I've got mail."

Family History Through the Alphabet – L is for …Straying

Frustration now sets in when ever I start to write an article for publication in a printed format.

I have become used to writing for digital publication and I just love that I am able to include links to other resources that provide my readers with additional information or clarification of subject specific terminology.


When I am reading in an eformat I relish the extra information I am able to glean from following such links. I have written recently that I am a tangential genealogist who regularly strays off my chosen path to follow links or leads.

The purpose of this post today is to encourage you all to move off that straight and narrow path that you have chosen when doing your genealogy research. Take some time to stray from that path and move laterally by following the links in online articles that you read.

You don't know what treasure you will unearth by engaging in some Link Love.

Family History Through the Alphabet – K is for …reaching out

Kiva Genealogists for Families team members come from many countries including Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Scotland, Spain and the United States. Our team motto is "we care about families (past, present and future)."

On our team blog http://genfamilies.blogspot.com.au/ that is maintained by team founder and leader, Judy Webster, you can read all about the project and its history. There you will also find some biographies of team members. Please take some time to read these and discover why genealogists have joined our group.

Kindness of team members has resulted in over $20,000 dollars of loans being made to members of families in third world countries.

Team impact as at 21/7/2012

The benefits of participating in the Kiva project cannot be underestimated. I have met a whole new group of genealogists via the Kiva project, our team spirit is buoyed as we read about the loans other members make and hear of how they raise funds to commit to Kiva loans. There can be unexpected benefits as Dianne indicates in her Facebook post:

Kudos to our leader, Judy, who is the lynchpin that ensures the success of our team.

This is a post about technology. It demonstrates how social networking can be harnessed for good, team members have used Facebook, Blogger and the social functions of the Kiva site to reach out to others.

If you can rustle up $US25 please follow this link and join the Genealogists for Families team on Kiva . 

Family History Through the Alphabet – J is for …file types

I have a rudimentary knowledge of file extensions, those (mostly) little three letter codes that append themselves to the end of our file names to indicate what type of files they are, or, as a dictionary says " The portion of a filename, following the final point, which indicates the kind of data stored in the file."  

I know that my family history files contain items with a number of  different extensions. Some of the ones in my collection are:

.avi   Audio Vidio Interleave

.csv  Comma Separated Values 

.doc  Microsoft Word Document

.ged  Gedcom Genealogy Data 

.html  Hypertext Markup Language

.mp3  MP3 Audio

.mp4  MP4 Video

.pdf  Portable Document File

.png  Portable Network Graphic

.ppt   Powerpoint Presentation

.rtf    Rich Text Format

.tif    Tagged Image File

.xls   Excel Spreadsheet

.zip   Zipped File

The files bearing these extensions document my genealogy Journey.

My favourite file extension that is on over 90,000 of my files is: 

.jpg  JPEG Image 

What is the extension of your favourite file format?