Tools

Further WordPress – GRAMPS Integration

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GRAMPS With the latest release of GRAMPS (version 3.2.2) I have been able to more tightly integrate the WebSite output of GRAMPS with the ManyRoads site.  With this most recent release I have the flexibility of generating html pages- YAY!  I am now able to provide the following functions quite easily:

  1. I can add an image -or multiples if I wish- to a GRAMPS generated webpage
  2. Now I am able to effectively link from my GRAMPS (subsystem?) back to my main site; link to pages like my Conatct page or a family branch page.
  3. Similarly I am able to links from my GRAMPS subsystem to the world-wide web.

All in all this additional functionality makes the total site function more smoorthly and in a more integrated fashion.  There remain several ‘intergration’ features/ items that would be helpful to GRAMPS -IMHO.  These include:

  1. the ability to preserve custom pages as I upgrade to new releases of GRAMPS (right now I need to do that manually)
  2. an easier way to modify and preserve the GRAMPS subsystem css (to preserve my local look & feel)
  3. and a prettier display of html pages within GRAMPS

Excepting the ugly display of html, each of the remaining tasks can be performed manually; it just would be nicer if they we a more standard function within GRAMPS.

The bottom line is that I am VERY happy with GRAMPS.  It is easier to use than most commecially available genealogy tool sets, and the support from the GRAMPS team is exceptional!  Kudos to GRAMPS.

As I uncover (learn) more I’ll share it here.

Examples include:

Merging Genealogy “Branches”

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Merging branches (also known as cutting and pruning) is something you will most certainly need to do; unless you never make mistakes!  I just encountered a situation like that with my Deyo Branch (I seem to enjoy making mistakes in this line…).

By way of providing background, a newly discovered relative was kind enough to point out that I might have made an error in selecting Joseph Dion’s parentage.  The good news and bad news is, he was correct.  I had Joseph linked to an incorrect branch of the Guyon family tree.  It was a very nice branch, just not the right one… Well after much panic and research, I built a new branch of the Deyo Family Tree.  It joined up with the old male line about three generations out; had a completely different matrilineal line.

With paper I’m guessing you’d just need a big eraser and a newly sharpened pencil… ‘unfortunately’ software is much more robust and requires a lot more planning.  I could not leave my genealogy database as it was, so here’s what I did (oh and you can do this too with your genealogy software).  Before going too much further I think you should know that I recommend doing everything ‘the hard way’ by that I mean without pushing a button to delete and then merge branches and the following process description reflects this approach.

  1. First you need to do some research (searching?) to identify the new line.  Load it all into a GEDCOM capable system.  I built my new line on Ancestry.com because it is easy, fast, and I pay for a subscription to use their databases (which have lots of good data).
  2. When you are satisfied with the new branch (or in my case branches) download it (them) to your PC.
  3. Open your genealogy software tool.
  4. Save your database (make a copy).
  5. Select the person(s) where you want to cut the old branch; remove them as the child from the family where you believe they no longer are associated.
  6. Run some tools to clean up your internal database links, record IDs, etc. Basically scrub things shiney clean.
  7. Import your GEDCOM file (the one from step 2; hopefully your software does this nicely and smoothly).
  8. Attach your new family(families) to the person mentioned in step 5.
  9. Save your database. (Yes, again… label it so you can find it; do this so you can reconstruct things if they go ‘pear shaped’)
  10. Run some tools to clean up your internal database links, record IDs, etc.  Basically scrub things shiney clean. (Just another repeat by Mr. Paranoia)
  11. Identify and clean-up duplicate People, Events, etc. — I use a mix of manual and automated methods for this.  I find the automated tools are somewhat ‘less than thorough’.
  12. Run some tools to clean up your internal database links, record IDs, etc. Basically scrub things shiney clean.
  13. Save your database (make a copy).

You should now be done and hopefully things will work like you had hoped.  You can see my efforts on the Deyo Branch of our family tree.  This method will leave the old branches in your main tree, should you wish to reconnect to them.  In my case the branch started with 447 people; I added 201 new people from new family sections and after clean-up have 591 individuals.

15 Excellent & FREE Genealogy Sites

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Numerous excellent FREE genealogy sites are available- probably too many to mention. Beyond the sites listed below from LovetoKnow, I suggest the following exceptional sites (obviously these relate heavily to my areas of research):research

sourced from LovetoKnow

Roots Web
Huge database of ancestry data. Be sure to check out the information on how to get started. Also offers many tools and resources in addition to information such as charts and forms for tracking your family tree. Also find related mailing lists and message boards. [This site is owned and operated by Ancestry.com these days.]

USGen Web Project
Volunteers and researchers work to provide free genealogy resources to those searching for the roots to their family tree. Easy to search by state or name. The site has several genealogy projects going in addition to this website. One of the projects is a census project.

Family Search
Many of the resources at this are free, although there are some paid resources. Check out the handy research guides and find out how to get the most from your efforts. Also offers Jewish family history resources and African American resources. Register for free for further access to records. [This site is owned and operated by the LDS Church and is under-going a major renovation and expansion.]

Ancestral Findings
Request a free lookup (up to 2 per day). Many different articles on how to find your ancestors, including how to make sure you’ve found the right person. Tons of free databases on this site, including Irish Ancestry, Native American, Mexican and United Kingdom.

Gen Graphics
Clipart for creating a family tree or genealogy website. Includes family tree graphics and layouts as well as other graphics and forms. For an example of how to lay out an ancestry page on your own website, check out the site owner’s layout. Obsolete Site 28 Jul 2010

Search for Ancestors
In addition to free searches for family members on your tree, you can also try out the tombstone birthday calculator. Be sure to visit the freebies page for goodies such as free charts, databases, research guidance, lessons, free trial offers and free articles and tips. [Appears to be another Ancestry.com affiliated site.]

Family History Circle
Blog detailing many of the latest news in the genealogy world. Includes an Ancestral Weekly Journal. Categories cover topics such as journal articles, a weekly planner, tips from the pros, quick tips from visitors, quote of the day and what happened in different years.

Genealogy.com
Biography assistant allows people to post notes on people in their family and draw from what other users have written. The “Genealogy How-To” section covers topics such as getting started in genealogy, getting organized, and developing research skills.

Footnote
Unique site allows users to post different types of documents and records for others to peruse. For example, there is an area on Revolutionary War documents, and another on Pennsylvania archives from 1664-1880. Don’t miss the spotlights page for feature item.

FamilyLink.com
Sign up for free at Family Link and upload your personal profile. Fill in the information you know about your family tree and then seek the advice of local genealogists in your area or the area from which your family hails. You can also do a quick search by surname or areas in the world.

Copyright © 2004 – 2010 LoveToKnow Corp All Rights Reserved.

Share with Gendex

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Share your information! It’s a really good idea. Almost certainly someone out there is looking for a family member or two of yours.

Database

The corollary is: you know how hard it has been for you to find reliable information, why not make it easier for everyone by generously making your work shareable. Of course, you want to protect your living relatives.  You also want to be acknowledged for your efforts.  Each of these objectives are easily achieved.

  • Gendex files ‘automagically’ protect your living relatives data.
  • Creative Commons offers license schemes, at no cost, to protect your intellectual property.

I make my publicly viewable data available on FamilySeekeer and GenealogyToday.  I also plan on making it available at TNG.

For those of you who are not familiar with GENDEX here’s a brief write-up on what it is as described by GenealogyToday.com:

The gendex.txt concept was developed by Eugene W. Stark who included the feature in his GEDCOM to HTML translator software, GED2HTML, which helped people publish their family trees on the Internet.

GED2HTML is a program that inputs genealogical data in GEDCOM format, and outputs a collection of HTML files suitable for presentation on the World Wide Web. The output produced consists of HTML files containing the individual data, an index suitable for quickly locating an individual by name and an auxiliary surname index with links to the first individual with each surname.

The gendex.txt files were originally accepted by Stark’s GENDEX site, but since that site was retired in 2004, other sites (including ours) have begun supporting the format.

GRAMPS – WordPress Integration

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Integrating GRAMPS and WordPress is a very straightforward activity. Not a lot of special skills or tools are required in order to make this integration work smoothly. I have to say it is one of the things I like best about GRAMPS.

GRAMPS A couple of points worth remembering (knowing?) first:

  • Don’t expect to update your GRAMPS data through WordPress. My experience says GRAMPS works best from a data collection and manipulation perspective as a stand alone PC application.
  • Neither database is ever truly linked in this integration. I think that is good for a number of reasons:
    • Your GRAMPS database can be secured (remain private)
    • Breaking one system doesn’t break everything; a good feature for those of us prone to checking our systems recovery processes regularly.
  • Websites are better for sharing information than they are for updating it. This is especially true if you have constrained network bandwidth, lots of different media and files of varying sizes including many that are BIG!  I would guess that these conditions encompass most people doing genealogy.

So on to the integration… there are basically 5 major steps:

  1. Get an iframe plug for use in WordPress- I use and like Iframe Embedder from de77.com
  2. Modify one of the pre-existing GRAMPS css templates used by GRAMPS NAVWEB to generate websites to blend with your site look & feel (I use Geany as my css editor)
    • rename and save the new CSS template in /usr/share/gramps/data/ (Linux path to the templates– maybe one of our readers can tell us what the Windows path might be)
    • you also need to add the new css option to constants.py in /usr/share/gramps/ReportBase (Linux path to the templates)
    • if you are running on Linux- like me- you will need root privs to perform the above 2 steps
  3. Go to Reports-Web Pages–Narrated Web Site and generate a web site via this GRAMPS function.
  4. Copy the GRAMPS NAVWEB website that is generated on to your WordPress site somewhere where you will find it.

  5. Generate a Page in WordPress for your GRAMPS Website to be located.  Add the following if you are using Iframe Embedder  :

If you want to see this in action you may view it at:

Cleanup from Ancestry.com #2

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Ancestry files require a lot of clean-up before they are really useful or accurate.  As I noted earlier, the files themselves need to be scrubbed of duplicates, overlapping records and more.

ToolsIn order to accomplish these repairs, I use numerous tools to address the requisite tasks including:

  • GRAMPS (a Linux Genealogical Toolset)- I like this tool a lot because it provides wonderful facilities for performing the following functions:
    • Merging duplicate Sources
    • Merging Duplicate Places
    • Identifying and Merging duplicate People
    • Database clean-up
  • RootsMagic 4 provides nice facilities for:
    • Pruning branches and limbs
    • Problem analysis
  • TNG (The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding): (Note: I no longer use TNG-  28 Jul 2010)
    • Merging duplicate Sources
    • Merging Duplicate Places
    • Identifying and Merging duplicate People
    • Web Presentation of Information (see our Genealogy page)
  • Gedit (a Linux Text Editor):
    • for building quick Gedcom files to import into the various tools
  • Geany (a programming editor):
    • to modify TNG for blending with WordPress
    • to edit files and text off-line

The clean-up of a 500 person tree took me about three days (25 hours) of effort. Each of the tools alone would not have done the job by themselves.  Numerous tools were required to repair the problems both introduced and allowed by Ancestry.com.

In a subsequent article, I’ll cover additional pointers to watch-out for when you embark on a conversion and clean-up effort.

Norwegian Research

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Norway offers exceptional internet research facilities for genealogy.

Although we have not been working in the Sivertsen family line very long we have uncovered some very helpful web-tools. Thus far we have unearthed several excellent, dare I say indispensable,  tools:

    Genealogy-Ideas

  • Norwegian Historical Data Centre (a wonderful repository) – The Norwegian Historical Data Centre (NHDC) is a national institution under the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Tromsø (UiTø). Our main aim is to computerize the Norwegian censuses 1865 onwards together with the parish registers and other sources from the 18th and 19th centuries.
  • National Archives of Norway – Digitalarkivet (Digital Archives) is the Norwegian National Archives’ channel for publication of digitised archive material in the form of images, transcribed texts and databases. The publication includes archive material both from electronic sources and traditional paper sources, that are either digitised from an original or a microfilm. The digitised material is processed in the National Archives (Riksarkivet), the regional state archives (statsarkivene) or in our digitising units. Some of the material is also produced through external co-operation.
  • Digitised Parish Registers (Church of Norway; Lutheran) – This is a new service from The Digital Archives, offering you browsing and presentation of digitised parish registers (as images). It is an extension of the already established service from 1998 that offers you searchable databases of transcribed sources.

There are other sites worth using to help get the ball rolling such as those assisting with Nowegian Gothic script, naming conventions, etc.  Some of those links may be found on our links page under Scandinavia Genealogy.

Scandinavia Research is underway

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I have begun in earnest working on Becky’s side of the family.  This means research in both Norway and Sweden has started for me.  As one might expect the available references and information are a ‘tad’ difficult for non-native language speakers; and my German is not really very close to either Norwegian or Swedish!
research
Having said that I must say that the available resources are quite exceptional. I find those from Norway to be a bit more advanced and easier to use (not to mention free!).  Sweden’s are less complete, more awkward technologically and they cost money; unless you go to your local LDS Family History Center for free access.

I will be posting what I believe are the most useful links (in my humble? opinion-IMHO) on ManyRoads. If you have some excellent links and pointers to share, please contact me so I can post them -or- just write a comment here.

The best non-genealogy genealogy places #2

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Books offer some of the best information! Personally, I find history texts and map books to especially helpful in doing my genealogy work. So if you are like me and are always looking for good places to obtain free textbooks, I highly recommend the following web locations:
Genealogy-Ideas

  • Project Gutenberg (the grand-daddy of them all!)- Many of our texts come from here…
  • Google Books- full of all manner of materials
  • Google Scholar- a beta search tool
  • Open Culture -Get free online courses and texts from the world’s leading universities. This collection includes over 250 free courses in the liberal arts and sciences. Download [...] courses straight to your computer or mp3 player.
  • textbooksfree.org- This site provides MANY pointers to places, sites and organizations offering free “printed” matter.
  • Wikiversity – an interesting Wiki providing distance learning facilities/ content
  • Wikibooks- Wikibooks is a Wikimedia community for creating a free library of educational textbooks that anyone can edit. Wikibooks began on July 10, 2003; since then Wikibooks has grown to include over 35,822 pages in a multitude of textbooks created by volunteers like you!
  • The Internet Archive (was mentioned in The best non-genealogy genealogy places #1)

If you have places you’d like to contribute to this little list, please feel free to send them along or add them via a comment.

Posts in this Series

The best non-genealogy genealogy places #1

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Some of the most useful genealogy sites and locations, often are not genealogical in nature, include the following:

  • Internet Archive.  This site is associated with the wayback machine, for those who remember that. The site provides access to a wealth of source documents, histories, etc.  All the documents provided are free of copyright encumbrances, which means that they are available for download and use.  If you look around ManyRoads, you will find a host of Quebec and German documents sourced from there.
  • Your library! Libraries the world over provide access to a wealth of documentation, history and today electronic media.  Although I am constantly frustrated by my library’s inability to gain access to the weird texts I seek, I love the electronic access they provide me.  I am even able to use their services from my home or remote locations.  Included among the access services they provide are Ancestry.com and HertiageQuest.
  • dlibra. This Polish group of websites (there are some 10 of them) host a wealth of documentation and maps from the past.  For those seeking to unearth information about the former German lands of East & West Prussia, Silesia, and Pomerania these sites are a godsend.  The quantity of documentation and its easy availability is magnificent.
  • The Town Clerk. Never underestimate the value of a good town clerk.  I have had a great deal of assistance come from helpful people running the Town Offices of towns from which my forebears came. They have provided me with tips, document copies and numerous pointers.  Just don’t forget to be polite, ask nicely, and be appreciative!
Posts in this Series

Site enhancements

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Over the weekend I have made a few changes that “are supposed” to help make our site more accessible. I would appreciate any feedback that you might have with respect to these new tools.

Google Buzz:

On each page you should notice a button to access and use Google Buzz. Assuming you are a user of this new toolset, I would love to hear about the usefulness of the new plugin I installed.

Anrdoid/iPod formatting of ManyRoads:

I have installed a new feature that should allow easier access to ManyRoads from an Android or iPod phone. Again, please let me know how this seems to work.

Please feel free to use our contact page to send me any comments.

Alert! Chrome & Tweets

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Chrome, to my knowledge, does not ‘yet’ support reading DJVU files.  I have looked up and down for a plugin without any success.  If you are using Chrome on this site this deficiency will make reading documents difficult. Should you know of a way to read DJVU files in Chrome please share that with us either via comment or using our contact page.

On another note, you may have noticed that I replaced the Tweet/retweet function on this site.  The previous Tweet plugin stopped working in Firefox after a software upgrade.  Hopefully the new Tweet plugin will continue to work.

“Photo” Enhancements

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Getting a good picture from an aged image is crucial to developing and maintaining a good family history.  Unfortunately as you look around ManyRoads, you’ll notice countless images that ought to be fixed.  Aside from being a tad lazy, the skills required to accomplish this effort are significant and confusing. More

“Document” Enhancement

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Image & document restoration is key to successfully reading many genealogical documents. The source documents we have available to us today are often simply scanned or photographic images of original handwritten documents.  Many of the originals are themselves are in poor or suspect condition even before they are digitally captured. Given that is the case, we can’t be ‘flummoxed’ because we  still have to find a way to read these documents in order to decipher clues about our family’s’ past. More

Genealogy tool reviews

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Based upon an incredible interest (110+ reads in under 24 hours is immense interest in one of my posts!), I thought folks might like to see other reviews.

ToolsAs most of you, I use a LOT of tools and tricks to help me find the people and history around my family.  I am happy to share my experiences and ‘insights’, such as they are, with you. However, I‘d like to take your interests into account as I build my posts- assuming you are willing to share your desires. So… More

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