Backups, file duplication, redundancy, security are essential dimensions of performing quality genealogy work; well honestly they are required for any type of computing.  Having said that, most people don’t bother with any of this unless, and until, they have a catastrophe, and even then only for a short while after an accident. To my mind these functions need to be easy, seamless and nearly automagic once they are established.  All this is to say, data synchronization and backup must require very little, if any, extra effort or thought.  Extra effort or thought are almost always extra… and extra things tend to get forgotten. Like many of you over the past…

Should genealogy rely on GPS data?  When I recently heard the query, it gave me pause especially since people seemed pretty agitated over the point. I have to admit, it does seem that the value of GPS data is a point worth pondering, at least for a little while. It is probably worth noting that commercial GPS is really only about 10 years old and is primarily a US national system for establishing global location. To quote the ever popular Wikipedia: GPS is owned and operated by the U.S. Government as a national resource. Also, there are at least two competing and one non-competing GPS system online or soon to…

What is a traditional genealogical source?  To me that seemed to be a good question. So naturally, I Googled the term ‘Traditional genealogical source’ to see what I would find. The first item I came up with was the topic of a January/February 2003 issue of Ancestry Magazine by Mark Howells: Tombstone inscriptions have been a source of genealogical information for centuries. I could see tombstone inscriptions as being considered normal and traditional.  Although with the way my brain works, I could also see that tombstones might rapidly be coming passe. As the article itself describes, today’s headstones are nothing like those of yesteryear. Strangely, to me anyway, the next…

Technology can and should be an crucial adjunct to your genealogical efforts.  As a matter of fact, I contend that no effort is complete, nor can your genealogy efforts be fully effective, without effective technological support.  The support can be as simple as using a word processor or as complex as writing large databases to manage and maintain your data, documents and images. As I am sure you are aware, today’s technology options are both extensive and cost effective.  They can even be free.  As a web developer and genealogist, I, personally, rely almost exclusively on OpenSource technologies.  To give you a rough example of my software costs, I will…

Grab the data while you can.  I guess that is what every online genealogist needs to have as their motto these days. Today I uploaded a very useful (helpful) WordPress plugin called: Broken Link Checker– It checks your blog for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found. Well much to my dismay and surprise when I installed and ran the plugin, it found nearly 175 out of 1055 links ManyRoads to be broken or redirected.  That seemed like a lot to me.  I had been running several ‘free’ services to check my site for broken links and every week; they were reporting…

Many search but few find… I think that old quote pretty much sums up what happens when searching for the right genealogical toolset. Too often, people believe that their hardware or operating platform defines their selection choices.  In truth, it rarely does.  Almost any tool can be run on any platform.  Certainly a bit of technical prowess may be required in order to achieve interoperability but it is very doable. No, the reasons for picking a genealogical toolset should be based on your genealogy management needs not operating or hardware systems. What follows, in no particular order, are most of the factors that I personally see as being important (and…

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: I can add an image -or multiples if I wish- to a GRAMPS generated webpage 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. Similarly I am able to links from my GRAMPS subsystem to the world-wide web. All in all…

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…

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

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: 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…

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. Much like the Document Enhancement posting of several days ago. We need to find a good image processing environment.  I use the Gimp (an open source toolset that runs under Linux among other operating systems).  Many Windows users employ Adobe Photoshop, the pre-eminent tool kit (but pricey).  Numerous additional options are listed on About.com. Because I do things by hunt…