The NorthEast Ohio Computer-Aided Genealogy Society

QUARTERLY

 

A Summary of Events and Topics of Interest to Online Genealogists

 

Vol. 13 No. 2--April 1, 2008

 

compiled by Luther Olson

 

 

NorthEast Ohio Computer-Aided Genealogy [NEOCAG] serves Eastern Cuyahoga,

Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula, Portage & Summit Counties.

 

Regular meetings 2nd Saturday of each month

 

St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church

435 S.O.M. Road, Mayfield Village, OH.

 

Jerry Kliot—President

 

CONTENTS

 

> News and Views

 

> USGenWeb Sites Departing Ancestry.com-Hosted RootsWeb

> Many USGenWeb Sites Leave RootsWeb

> USGenWeb - Where Are They Moving?

> The Internet Effect On Local Genealogy Societies

> Internet Effect on Membership of NEOCAG Society?

> Where Did I Come From? TribalPages Genealogy Maps Have the Answer

> Research Your Tree in Just-Updated PERSI

> Should We Call It ‘Genealogy’ Or ‘Family History’?

> BYU Family History Archive to Expand

> Everton's Best Internet Sites for Finding Living Relatives

> Research at the Courthouse, Archives or Library/

    10 Tips for Planning Your Visit & Maximizing Your Results

> NARA Posts Free Passenger Indexes Online

 

=============================================================

 

> News and Views

 

A few years ago NEOCAG members participated in efforts to recycle our old equipment. It was evident from the start that we were concerned about the problem and interested in doing what we could to help keep toxic materials out of our environment.  After a few years, however, it became obvious that we had about reached the limit in what we could do. Fortunately many of our local communities began picking up on the problem and it seemed much better for each of us to work within our own city.

 

At that time we published a list of each city, which I would like to do once again. This list is from the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District—may I suggest that right now you bookmark this site so you can continue to go to it in the future. We are grateful to Jan Shergalis for her collection of old cell phones and empty printer cartridges each month which are recycled by the Kenston Schools.

 

It seems that we at the local level, including our individual communities, are carrying much of the load. A lengthy article in the PD on Thursday, 4/17, was disappointing, however, in that it appeared that the counties and the state are doing little or nothing.  You aren’t going to drive to Berea or Medina to get rid of your old batteries. Perhaps in the future we can find a way to make our officials at those levels more aware of their responsibilities.

 

In the meantime, thanks for your continued interest and support,

 

Luther

 

 ===============================================================

 

> USGenWeb Sites Departing Ancestry.com-Hosted RootsWeb

 

The free, volunteer-driven genealogy Web site RootsWeb has been transplanted to the domain of the subscription site (and RootsWeb's sibling under parent The Generations Network) Ancestry.com.

 

The move has spurred a large number USGenWeb Project administrators to take their sites off RootsWeb. Why—and what does all this mean for you? 

 

http://www.familytreemagazine.com/insider/Many+

USGenWeb+Sites+Leave+RootsWeb.aspx

 

==================================

 

> Many USGenWeb Sites Leave RootsWeb

Posted by Diane Haddad

 

About.com: Genealogy blogger Kimberley Powell reports many USGenWeb project administrators are moving their sites off RootsWeb—a change she says has long been coming, but was hastened by The Generations Network’s (TGN) decision to transfer RootsWeb to Ancestry.com’s domain (read more about that move in last week's blog post).

 

See which USGenWeb state and project sites are moving on Powell's blog. It looks like the relocated sites are adding redirects, and national and state administrators are keeping up with link updates.

 

A little background: USGenWeb is a network of free genealogy Web sites, one for each state and county. Each state and county site has a volunteer administrator who maintains it and adds information and links, which is why the sites look different. USGenWeb also hosts special projects on the national and state levels, such as the Family Group Sheet Project to post and link to online pedigree charts. National USGenWeb administrators link to the everything from the USGenWeb home page.

 

The national USGenWeb site and many of the local sites have long been hosted on RootsWeb, which TGN purchased in 2000 and has financially supported—and kept free—since then.

 

Powell says some USGenWeb administrators have been unhappy with slow RootsWeb servers and the lack of ability to add some of the bells and whistles today’s Web surfers are used to seeing.

 

Others are uncomfortable with the RootsWeb acceptable use policy—the legalese of which gives TGN license to use the data posted on RootsWeb servers (submitters retain copyright)—or feel the free, volunteer nature of USGenWeb is incompatible with a for-profit host. Of course, the connection was always there, but it's more obvious with ancestry in RootsWeb's URL.

 

The Family Group Sheet Project’s site, for example, has moved, and its redirect page bears a prominent message that "THIS SITE IS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH ANCESTRY."

 

Read more about what USGenWeb administrators have to say on Powell’s blog, and let us know what you think by clicking Comments below.

 

Genealogy Industry | Genealogy Web Sites

3/20/2008

 

COMMENTS

Thank goodness and it's about time. I thought Rootsweb would bring the end of the USGenWeb and volunteerism.

Martha Federle

 

Several years ago some webmasters picked up cues that GenWeb was being bought as indeed happened. Many quietly removed county pages and moved them to LHN / ALHN - American Local History Network. This created a temporary war between the sites. Many of these dedicated webmasters did not believe 'free' genealogy could disappear. I always recommend researchers check both sites. Most of GenWeb is archived and that on LHN has a great deal available on its pages. I personally find it more difficult and time consuming to have to try to find information in archived records.

 

This brings up another topic. Who "owns" the information submitted by researchers? I believe that webmasters are the care takers of the information donated by people. The way the pages look is 'copyrighted' but the information is not. All donated information should remain online. But change of webmasters often creates very hard feelings and much of this donated data is lost, as in the battles between ALHN and GenWeb. Both sides have dedicated talented webmasters. However, web site information can disappear with the stroke of a key when anger sets in.

Gloria Hall

 

 =======================================================

 

> USGenWeb - Where Are They Moving?

Kimberly's Genealogy Blog--Monday March 17, 2008 

From Kimberly Powell,

 

 Upcoming changes for Web sites hosted at RootsWeb.com have prompted many sites associated with the USGenWeb project to move off of the RootsWeb servers to a variety of other servers and ISPs. Many say that the change has been a long time in coming, although perhaps hurried a bit by last week's announcement of URL changes, along with a previous announcement of new co-branded RootsWeb/Ancestry mastheads to appear on all RootsWeb sites. There are many other factors involved, however - enough for me to discuss them in another blog post. The end result, however is that many of the state and county coordinators at USGenWeb have elected to move their sites, which will likely mean a bit of a disarray at USGenWeb for a while until all of the links get sorted out.

 

USGenWeb sites that are moving or have already moved include:

Colorado has moved with a new URL of www.cogenweb.com.

DCGenWeb has moved to www.theusgenweb.org/dcgenweb/

Georgia has moved its state pages to www.thegaproject.org

Hawaii GenWeb has moved to a new server and can be found at www.higenweb.org

Illinois has moved most of its 103 ILGenWeb county sites, plus four special projects and the state pages off of RootsWeb. The new Illinois GenWeb sites can be found at http://www.ilgenweb.net.

Indiana has moved its pages to a new domain at www.ingenweb.org

Iowa already had its own server (www.iagenweb.org), but as many as 2/3 of the counties are now planning to join the state pages on that same server.

Kentucky State Pages are also moving. They already had their own domain, so the URL (www.kygenweb.net) won't change, but the pages will now be hosted on a new server.

Maryland already had its own domain name at www.mdgenweb.org, but has now moved off of the RootsWeb server as well.

Massachusetts has also moved to mysite.verizon.net/magenweb/

MIGenWeb has moved the Michigan state pages to www.migenweb.net.

Mississippi has moved its state pages to www.msgenweb.org, with MSGenWeb county and special projects pages to follow.

Montana is in the process of moving according to state coordinator, Kevin Haddenham, and can be found at www.mtgenweb.org.

Many North Carolina counties have left RootsWeb for another server and the state pages will likely soon follow.

OHGenWeb has moved the Ohio state pages with a new URL of www.ohgen.net/ohgenweb/

Oklahoma is voting on a move.

ORGenWeb is in the process of moving Oregon state pages to www.orgenweb.org.

The TXGenWeb has moved off of RootsWeb servers to www.txgenweb.org.

The State pages for VAGenWeb have moved to www.vagenweb.org

West Virginia has moved the state WVGenWeb pages to www.wvgenweb.org

WAGenWeb will moving to a new server with a domain name of wagenweb.org

The National USGenWeb pages may also move to a new server, but this is still under discussion. They already have their own domain, however, so changes if they occur will be pretty much "behind the scenes."

The Family Group Sheets Project is moving -- primarily for new features that will allow them to improve their submission form -- and can be found at www.fgs-project.com. The USGenWeb Census project (one of them) has also moved - to www.usgwcensus.org.

Arizona, Tennessee, Kansas and Florida GenWeb had previously moved to their own servers prior to this month. California GenWeb has never been hosted on the RootsWeb server. Many other state GenWeb sites were also already hosted on non-RootsWeb servers, including Alaska, Iowa, Louisiana, South Carolina and Vermont.

 

It's not just USGenWeb, either. Many WorldGenWeb sites are moving off of the RootsWeb domain as well. On the other hand, there are also many country, state and county coordinators who are happy with the free hosting they get from RootsWeb and who are planning to stay put. Many, however, are concerned that the movement of so many sites to scattered servers will be detrimental to the wonderful USGenWeb Project.

 

The National USGenWeb site is doing a wonderful job at keeping up with the URL changes, as are many of the state pages - so start there first if you can't find a site you're looking for. A lot of updating is going on!

 

=======================================================

 

> The Internet Effect On Local Genealogy Societies

By James M. Beidler, Lebanon Daily News

 

Longtime readers know that I usually forewarn you when there’s a philosophy column ahead. We’re going to call this the “Big Bang Theory” of genealogical societies and volunteerism.

 

While I’m no astronomer or astrophysicist or anything like that, my understanding that a theory about the universe was that it began as a small, tightly packed glob of material that exploded billions of years ago and sent matter speeding away.

 

It’s been said that eventually this process will reverse — that the universe will collapse and then begin again with another “big bang.”

 

OK, so what’s this have to do with genealogy?

 

Well, it all came together for me recently when I was talking with my friend and fellow genealogist Jonathan Stayer, the head of reference for the Pennsylvania State Archives.

 

He was bemoaning how many societies have lost members in the last 10 years as a critical mass of genealogical data has moved to the Internet.

 

Simply put, societies have lost members to age and death, while the new folks who would have been inclined to replace them (pre-Internet) instead have chosen to do genealogy in their pajamas from home on their computer desktops.

 

So, the first part of the heavenly analogy is this: Consider Alex Haley’s “Roots” to be the “Big Bang” of 20th century genealogy. That event helped spur the formation of geographically based genealogical societies in most of the nation’s counties as well as ethnic organizations, state organizations and other groups.

 

These new societies transcribed cemetery markers, indexed church records and newspapers and abstracted wills and deeds. It was a veritable explosion of activity as most of the large record groups were made easier to use by the millions of hours spent by volunteers.

 

Then came the advent of the Internet. Genealogical societies started shrinking. Conferences, once almost a shoo-in to be successful, became more tenuous events financially.

 

The astronomical parallel here is the still-theorized turnabout when the stars start moving toward one another.

 

But Stayer hopes that at some point Internet genealogists will get a sense of what they’re missing by sticking only to the Web.

 

“There are so many records and documents that the average genealogist knows nothing about,” he said. “Account books in special collections libraries, family papers in university libraries, collections in small county historical societies.”

 

If people do get a whiff of what they’re missing, that might cause them to gather together, literally or virtually — perhaps in smaller groups or long-distance e-societies — to begin another great age of genealogical volunteerism.

 

Groups such as FamilySearch, the Mormon-based group that runs the Family History Library, are already giving long-distance collaboration a try to enable many more documents to be indexed and posted on the Internet digitally.

 

Here’s to hoping that Stayer is right--all family historians will benefit if this second “Big Bang” comes about.

 

Beidler is a freelance writer and lecturer on genealogy. Contact him either at Box 270, Lebanon, PA 17042, or by e-mail to james@beidler.us.

 

=========================================

 

> Internet Effect on Membership of NorthEast Ohio Computer-Aided Genealogy Society?

 Luther Olson

 

Since our membership and attendance has slightly declined in recent years, it could be assumed that the internet has cut into membership of our group. But there are reasons other than the internet that have unfortunately come along during this same short time span of our "golden years."

 

1.      During the first years that our members owned computers they needed much help and advice. Many had been doing genealogy for decades, but now it was how to use this complicated machine that was of much greater concern.

 

2. Software was also of concern and members looked forward with anxiety to the release of new versions that promised to have more changes and the addition of new "bells and whistles." By now we all know pretty much what to expect so new releases are hardly mentioned. Members have now gone through a half dozen new versions and know how to do most of the chores they desire.

 

3. Before the internet as we know it, the CD was the medium that brought all the new information to our computer. Remember the "12 free CDs with this version" and 24 if you bought the most “Super Deluxe” box. We sometimes made our decisions more by the CDs than by the software itself. Special databases were all available on CD, seldom by download.

 

4. The many presentation topics that we heard at our society meetings were often new to us, and we looked forward to them with anticipation. By now, many of these (or the offspring of these) have been brought back in up-to-date offerings, but it sometimes appears that the interest and enthusiasm is not what it was in earlier times.

 

We have to recognize that many of our members during the past decade, are either gone or, for one reason or other, are not going to be with us much longer. In spite of all these developments NEOCAG membership is holding quite well. Fortunately, we have more and more prospects for new members if we can find a way to reach them. It seems that the number of those who have an interest in genealogy is growing, not declining. Therefore one could argue that the internet could prove to be a positive, not negative to our future, and that it is up to us to adapt to the changing environment.

 

However, many of these new members are going to be different than those of the past. They will come to us with a greater knowledge of computers (and other digital devices) then we have, and software and the internet are just taken for granted. Hopefully, our societies can adapt quickly enough that we can attract and then keep these younger members--who will be the leaders of tomorrow. 

 

==========================================================

 

> Where Did I Come From? TribalPages Genealogy Maps Have the Answer

  Tue Nov 27 Tampa, FL

 

New Genealogy Maps from TribalPages.com. plot your family history using the industry-leading Google Maps.

 

TribalPages.com, home to over 175,000 family tree websites, today announced the Beta release of their new Genealogy Maps. These new tools take location information already present in GEDCOM or online family trees, and provide a unique graphical view of a family history to answer some fundamental questions:

 

• Where Did We Come From? - The Ancestor Map shows all known locations from an individual's ancestors. Showing many generations at one glance, this map quickly show where a person's past lies.
• Where Did This Family Live? - The Family Map displays where the Parents and Children of an individual were born, allowing the family historian to walk step-by-step through the family's past just by following the links to each family member.

• Where Did They Go? - The Descendants Map provides a single view of how an ancestor's offspring spread throughout the world, and provides a fascinating view of how broad an impact a single individual can have.

 

"We aren't trying to be the leading research site, or provide the largest database of names to search," explained Vandana Rao of TribalPages, "What we do is help you present your family history to the world. These new Genealogy Maps are a great new way to do that. Seeing where your ancestors came from and where their families ended up is a very powerful experience."

 

TribalPages is one of the last online services offering completely free online family trees, with no trial periods or gimmicks. "We're happy to provide these Maps to our free family trees, " says Rao, "We feel that the more usable and powerful our platform is, the more likely our free customers will choose to pay for the additional photo storage and premium features our paid sites provide."

 

About TribalPages.com:

Over the past seven years, TribalPages.com has gained a loyal following and an outstanding reputation by providing free and inexpensive genealogy sites while protecting the site owner's content and privacy with flexible security options. Their easy to use online interface requires no external genealogy program and provides some of the best photo integration features on the web.

 

Contact:

Vandana Rao, Business Development

TribalPages, Inc.

http://www.tribalpages.com

703-286-6247

 

 ===============================================

 

> Research Your Tree in Just-Updated PERSI

November 28, 2007 Family Tree Magazine

Posted by Diane Haddad

 

The Allen County (Ind.) Public Library genealogy staff has beefed up its Periodical Source Index (PERSI) with references to another 132,000 history and genealogy articles published in journals and magazines during 2006 and 2007.

 

HeritageQuest Online, the genealogy database you can search free in many public libraries, has included the updates in its searchable version of PERSI.

 

That brings PERSI's total article citations to more than 2 million. They reference 6,600-plus periodicals published in the United States, Canada and abroad since 1800. It’s the most extensive periodical index available for local history and genealogy research.

 

You can search the updated PERSI at libraries offering HeritageQuest Online and at Allen County, Ind., public libraries. The subscription site Ancestry.com offers an older version of PERSI, dating from 1985.

 

Search PERSI on a name, place or subject, and you’ll get citations for journal and magazine articles that mention your term. Then, request the full article from your library, borrow it through interlibrary loan or order copies from the Allen County library ($7.50 for up to six articles, plus the cost of photocopies).

 

Read more about the formation of PERSI and about the Allen County library on FamilyTreeMagazine.com.

 

   =======================================================

 

At one of our genealogy meetings a few years ago I asked, without warning, whether genealogy is “about” blood or family. I gave no definitions or explanation why I asked the question—I was interested in their visceral feelings at that moment, since most have done extensive work in recording information on their family. I had no idea what to expect for a response, and yet when they raised their hands I was shocked. Almost unanimously the answer was “blood.”

 

My surprise was that I expected a wide variety of opinions that might elicit some discussions for further meetings. As it turned out, there just wasn't much to say when everyone was in agreement. However, the program committee might consider some variation on this topic for the future. -----LO

 

> Should We Call It ‘Genealogy’ Or ‘Family History’?

By James M. Beidler, Lebanon Daily News,

Dick Eastman Newsletter, July 31, 2007

 

This week’s column comes with a warning label.

 

CAUTION: Philosophy ahead (Do not operate heavy machinery after reading this column).

 

Especially in the last few decades as ancestor hunting has become a mass sport, so to say, there has been a debate inside and outside the so-called genealogical community (that is, professionals, societies, libraries and other organizations) on what we should call ourselves.

 

 Should we stick with the traditional term “genealogist”  — which, strictly defined, is the study of bloodline ancestors — or use the broader term “family historian”?