Zotero and genealogy
Do you use Zotero in doing your genealogy research work?
This is a question I have toyed around with for quite a while now. I don’t have a good answer for myself although the toolset seems well suited to gathering web-based information, collating, and processing it. It is also tightly coupled with the browser I use most frequently, Firefox. Still I have been unable to find and good roadmap on how to make this toolset work to my advantage. I am constantly in search of tools that link tightly with websites (i.e., Ancestry.com, etc.), online documents, image libraries, etc. Zotero claims to do all that and more. Sounds good to me, especially since it should also gather and log attribution, footnote, and bibliography data as well.
Rather than providing an answer to this query, I am in search of leads and comments. Does anyone out there have experience(s) they are willing to share? Any links on how-to use Zotero in the genealogy & family history realm?
Any pointers are most welcomed. Please use our contact page or comments below to share your insights.
May 27, 2010 @ 04:01:34
Give WizFolio a try. WizFolio is a web 2.0 bibliographic management tool with Word 2003/2007 plugin that allows you to cite your citations. With WizAdd you can almost easily import anything off the internet in cite-able format using our powerful parsers. We will be releasing a citation tool for Google Docs and Open Office in June 2010. Do let us know about your comments at [email protected]
Apr 21, 2012 @ 15:03:05
I have been experimenting with Zotero and have come across some ways to make it work for me. I am searching through two different archives containing church records. When I find a person of interest I engage Z to “archive” the page. I use the title to put in the persons name (surname, name, name…). The author is the name of the archive and website is the name of the particular series of records (Church name,year, type of record). In my case this last is usually a series of links as you filter through the archive.
After having saved a series of documents. I will go through them again taking the title and amending the image file of the document. This image is then attached to the person in my FTM database (or new entry as the case may be). I can then use Zotero’s information to prepare the source information in FTM.
One thing that I am trying to work out is getting what has been completed into a library folder, or subfolder, and away from the main page. This is without loosing any data.
Apr 22, 2012 @ 05:55:01
Wow Bernie. That sounds like a wonderful and thorough approach. I’ll bet it would work with Mendeley as well.
May 06, 2012 @ 14:32:27
If I knew how, or maybe a blogpost doesn’t allow it, I would have attached a printscreen image of my Zotero page. If I were to send them a wish list it would be the ability to transfer information between folders, not just copying them. That way one could have a working folder and then transfer them to various family folders from which to do more indepth research.
Then the ability to change the names and format of fields, making a genealogy profile.