Category: Resources Page 4 of 17

By Mackenzie Kosut (Flickr: Brooklyn Home Office, Minimized, At Night) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I only wish my home office had such a view or was as nicely clean and laid out as this one! 🙂

Yesterday I posted on my facebook page that Thomas MacEntee of GeneaBloggers is starting a new series this week on the genealogy profession.

I think this is fabulous! As this is a recent profession for me (I officially started my business in September), I have counted on blogs and people like Thomas MacEntee to help get me started. And he really has! Not only did his website GeneaBloggers introduce me to an amazing group of genealogy bloggers that I now take a part in, but I’ve also used his GenBiz Solutions website as well!

The GenBiz Solutions Guides are really great. I’ve bought the Marketing Plan guide, which helped me to create a plan that I am still tweaking as I go. I also received his Creating an Email Marketing Campaign (full disclosure: I did not pay for this but my opinions are my own) which was probably more helpful than I could have imagined! It was my go-to guide when I was creating my giveaway for the Genealogy Lady’s book Dear Mother, Love Daddy. It was chock full of great information, just like the marketing plan guide! They are very reasonably priced and for any person wishing to go the professional route, I do highly recommend his guides. I am NOT a business person! I was an English and history major at school – which means I’m good at researching, reading, and writing reports 🙂 Running a business is new to me so I have greatly enjoyed guides like the ones that Thomas MacEntee has!

First in Series

This new series How to Make Money in the Genealogy Business is another great way that Thomas MacEntee is helping out the budding professionals in this ever-growing industry. Yesterday’s post was “Genealogy – For Fun or Profit?” There were so many great items in that post but I’ll share some of my favorites:

…”Genealogy Professional, Not a Professional Genealogist.” – MacEntee makes this distinction with a very good point. Whenever I say I am a professional genealogist, people do assume I only do client research when there is so much more going on! Writing and lecturing (the creation of) are two of my biggest items that I spend a lot of time on, and I think the wording of genealogy professional encompasses a lot more than a professional genealogist.
Affiliate Marketing – something I’ve never done before and I am definitely interested in learning more!
Keeping a journal – something I do not do at this point but will now. He recommends putting ideas down in a journal and then reviewing it once a week to see what is possible.
Exploit your niche – this is something I am struggling to really find. I’ve heard people recommend not starting your business until you have a niche, but I did not do that as I’m still exploring where I’d like to focus and I know many others who have done the same.
Discount on one of his GenBiz guides – go to the link for the post and read through it all – a lot of good stuff in there! – there’s a promo code at the bottom for a discount on one of the GenBiz Solutions guides!

Second in Series

Today’s post is “Careers in Genealogy” – There is quite a lot you can do with genealogy as your focus I’ve realized. It’s not just client research, as already mentioned. Your mix of genealogy careers will depend on where you live too. Places like Washington D.C. and Salt Lake City may have client research as their one or main income stream. For me in small-town Indiana, it’s a mix of lecture, writing, and client research. That mix will become heavier on the lecture and writing sections as I’ve discovered during my first year of business as well, but this list also shows what other branches you can consider besides those three basic ones. I imagine my current choices will change based on the environment (business and geographic) and as I discover what I enjoy and do not enjoy.

Again, this post has lots of great information but a few of my favorites are:

Author – I love the idea of ebooks and guides and I’m interested in looking at doing something like this in the near future
Speaker – webinars are definitely a time/money saver! I love how easily accessible they are to so many people and how much more affordable they are when you want a more well-known speaker but can’t afford for them to physically come to a group.
Mentor – I can’t recommend this enough! Genealogy professionals may not be in your immediate area but so many are available online; that’s where I found many of my own mentors in going through this process.
What sort of genealogist are you? This is a great question to consider and spend some time thinking about! This was a question we asked ourselves throughout my history undergrad as well but “what kind of historian are you” instead. I always considered myself a social historian – I enjoy people and their stories throughout history; not the big things like wars and politics, but more on how those big things influenced people’s lives throughout the years. It’s no wonder I love genealogy!

I highly recommend checking out the series! It’s great for professionals, those thinking of becoming professionals, and even those who are simply curious. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment here or on Facebook!

Tuesday’s Tip: Twile

By Nichelle Barra

On 22 July 2015

In Resources, Review

Yes this is a day late again. I have been a day off all week long! 🙂

Not too long ago, I recieved an email about a new family tree website called Twile.

I checked it out but didn’t do too much with it at first. But I followed them on Facebook and saw that they were allowing people to upload GEDcom’s – awesome! That is so much easier than re-making your whole family tree!

Uploading my GEDcom did come with some issues, which isn’t surprising. GEDcoms can be quite complicated as they come from many different programs but Twile’s owners are diligently working on the issues and I was able to upload the GEDcom last week!

So, now that I have that on there I get the chance to explore! Here are some things you can expect from Twile. First, at the top, you’ll find the main tool bar for viewing. You have two options: Timeline or Family Tree

Timeline

You can choose different views for this one. You can choose FAMILY:

You can’t see it well but the timeline goes from your earliest ancestor recorded (mine happens to be 1796) to current time. You can scroll through the time line by clicking and “pulling” it along (much like you do on Ancestry and FamilySearch to move documents around). Or you can use the timeline line at the bottom of the screen:

You can also view a specific ancestor’s life. Just click the button that says Family and you’ll get this list where you can then choose someone to specifically look at:

There you’ll see recent searches and then an alphabetical list. It’s alphabetical by first name, which takes a moment to get used to. Here’s a look at one of my ancestors:

You can also see that specific person’s profile:

Family Tree

The Family Tree view can focus in on a specific person (as the profile at the top shows, you can click the Their Tree button to get a look at that ancestor’s specific connections. But you can move around this screen to see whatever connections you’d like:

Pros

It’s just starting out – to me this is great because it means the owners/creators are actively paying attention to the needs and wants of it’s consumers. I have had wonderful responses to questions and problems I’ve come across with the site! It’s being monitored and your responses will be answered PLUS you can help make it better.
It’s FREE! – Always a nice touch.
Upload your GEDcoms – This is preferred to having to recreate a family tree!
Photo capabilities – Great for adding a more personal touch.
Views – I really like the timeline view. Seeing the whole family throughout time like that gives it in a unique perspective. The family tree view is nice as well. I like that in the family tree view, the number under their initials (or picture) tells you how many facts, or stories, you have for them. It’s a nice quick view.
Ease of use – very self-explanatory and easy to use. I have not had a problem maneuvering around the website.
Share – As always, part of building a family tree is to SHARE IT! For family members, you just need to click their profile and you’ll see a box that says “Invite [Name] to share your family history with him/her” and a place for an email address. Enter that in and you’ll be able to share photos, stories, and the timeline with them. You can also invite friends, but they can then only see what you add to your specific timeline.
Feedback – In the menu there’s a section for feedback. I love it when websites actively seek out their costumer’s opinions and then DO something about it. Twile definitely delivers in that aspect!
Private – This is not a public tree. You get to choose who gets to view and edit information. This could be a CON for some people, but I know it’s something people have been looking for lately.

Cons

It’s just starting out – This is both a pro and a con. It’s great but you will also need to expect hiccups and some issues. However, it’s the customer service that makes or breaks this and I do feel this is more a PRO than anything because of Twile’s customer service. But it’s something to be aware of nonetheless.
Missing timeline items – I had this issue with census information after I uploaded my GEDcom. It was fixed for a specific ancestor that I had emailed about but I notice that it wasn’t fixed for all of my family. Military information is also missing. They are aware of the issue though. My GEDcom had items that were new to them and therefore didn’t upload correctly. This is one of those issues that will be fixed with time as it is still a new website working out the kinks as they go along.
Citations – Although my GEDcom has citations attached to people, Twile does not currently support that feature. I am not sure if that is something they hope to do or not but I do hope they will consider adding that feature. After all, genealogists work very hard to get those documents and we all know a fact (for lack of a better word) is only as good as it’s source!

Overall, this is a great website and I hope it continues to grow! I’ve been asked before about a place where people can put their family tree for free and have their family/friends view it and this has been at the top of my recommendations lately. FamilySearch is great, but it’s public, same with WikiTree. People have lately wanted a tree they could privately share and I think Twile is filling that gap nicely.

I also like their About page’s first line: “We know that family history is more than just names on a family tree.” So true!

Check out the website and their Facebook page for more information!

Have any of you used Twile? What did you think? Add your comment on Facebook or below!

Tuesday’s Tip: Etsy?

By Nichelle Barra

On 14 July 2015

In Resources

Recently, Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers posted about using Etsy for genealogy. Have you tried this yet? Are you familiar with Etsy?

Etsy is actually one of my favorite places to shop because I LOVE handmade items – journals, jewelry, house items, etc. So I’ve shopped on Etsy for a number of years now. I’ll admit though, I hadn’t thought of using Etsy for genealogy until I saw the post on Geneabloggers.

Even now, I’m… skeptical.

There are genealogy related items on Etsy. For example, here’s a screenshot of what searching for genealogy can find:

You get a lot of fun items this way where you can display your genealogy work.

Prints featuring personalized trees, graphs, charts, etc. that you can hang in your home
Other forms of artwork that can be personalized for you – Christmas ornaments, maps, etc.
Jewelry shaped in trees or other ways that can be genealogy related (for example, my favorite necklace came from Barb’s Branches on Etsy)
and more

Thomas MacEntee recommends adding the word ‘books’ to get some really interesting results and this surprised me as well. There were a number of items here that would be very useful mixed in with the usual ‘make your own’ genealogy books:

From there you can get specific – put in the word Pennsylvania after genealogy books and you’ll get a number of PA related historical books.

Searching just for a place can also bring up some great results, too. For example, a search for Saginaw brings up:

MAPS!!!!

Did I mention how much I LOVE maps???

For a measly $8.00 I could get a reproduction of the East Saginaw 1867 map – AMAZING! My husband is not thrilled with this recent discovery and since we share an office and it’s tiny, there’s not much I can do about this at the moment.. Trust me, when I get to have my own office one day, the walls will be filled with framed maps (and MANY book shelves…)!

Until then, I need to restrain myself.

Another neat item on Etsy is the photographs part when you search for genealogy. When you do a general search for genealogy, one of the top categories that comes up is photography. Clicking there is like finding a treasure trove at a garage sale. There’s an amazing amount of photos on there! Not all are identified and some are incredibly expensive, but it’s still very neat to see what is in this collection.

Thomas MacEntee also recommends looking by surname. Now when I did this I found nothing for my main surnames (Witherell, Langeneck, Almy). But when I use my paternal grandmother’s maiden name, which is Hummel, LOTS of figurines showed up! That isn’t surprising though and I expected as much for that name. In my quick search, I didn’t find anything genealogically related with the name though. However, it’s free to search so I recommend doing so; you could be pleasantly surprised!

Now as far as what this can do for your genealogy research, that will be up to you. It’s fun to look through and if you enjoy items created by your genealogy, this is a great site! The items for sale that could be useful (like the books and maps) tend to be available in libraries or historical societies, but if you like to have these items at home for whatever reason, for example, because you live far away from such places, this could be useful in your research. As I said, I remain skeptical as to how well this site can be used for your genealogy research, but it’s still worth the search. Nothing ventured, nothing gained after all!

Have you used Etsy for your research? Share your story!

Friday Finds June 27th-July 3rd

By Nichelle Barra

On 3 July 2015

In Friday Finds, Resources

By Sayamindu Dasgupta from Cambridge, MA, United States (4th of July 2012 in Boston) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

This is my favorite month out of the whole year! When I was younger July was always when the best things seemed to happen:

Absolutely no school (my school year ended mid-June and August always had back-to-school tones)
The 4th of July and all the events leading up to it (parades, cook-outs, fun downtown events, etc.)
FIREWORKS!
My birthday
Adventures: vacations, beaches, camping, sleepovers, swimming, star-gazing, bike riding until the street lights came on – suffice it to say, summers were spent OUTSIDE
Family Stuff – we’d always get together sometime during the summer and it would often be in July

July was always the best month and although it’s changed over the years, it’s still a time I look forward to. 🙂

Blogs/Articles

WIN AN ANCESTRYDNA KIT!!!! Hosted by Geneabloggers.com, you could win a FREE AncestryDNA kit! You have until Sunday to enter! Check out the details here and good luck!
As mentioned above, this is the time for vacations! If you’re thinking about adding history to the trip (which is what my vacations consist of entirely!), then check out this list of living history destinations! I HIGHLY recommend Colonial Williamsburg and Greenfield Village!
Last year at NGS I was introduced to the Genealogist’s Declaration of Rights. It’s still ongoing and in need of support! Upfront with NGS posted about it again, fittingly for this weekend. Read the article here to see how access for genealogists has been restricted over the years and to find out how to sign the declaration!
Have we become too PC when it comes to historic sites? This could start a great conversation! Check out this well-written article by Michelle Zupan on her recent experience in Savannah, GA
Do you struggle with research plans? Practice will make this better! That and reading what others do! Here’s a great blog post from Jill Morelli of Genealogy Certification: “Research Plans: A Reprise.”
I went through a run-down of AncestryAcademy when it is was still quite new. Now they’ve added quite a bit more! Check out Dick Eastman’s review of the educational resource here!
This is a wonderful idea – “Instructions for Census Takers” in this post on EOGN, he discusses why you should read (and how to find) these instructions.
Ever wonder why some information was removed from a favorite online site? Dick Eastman discusses that in his blog post titled “Why Was the Information Removed from Online?”
“Rhode Island Proposal to Restrict Access to Vital Records” – see the post by Dick Eastman as well as where to go for more information.

Webinars/Videos

Pinning Your Family History by Thomas MacEntee will be presented this coming Wed, 8 July, 9pmEST! To register to view it for FREE (if you view it live), click here.
This wonderful story from an immigrant coming over with her family to be with her father brought tears to my eyes! Check out the oral history here.
The Freedmen’s Bureau made some big news lately with the announcement of making the records freely searchable online. Here’s a wonderful video about using these valuable records! (Plus the link to help out!)
“How to Use the New National Archives Catalog” by US National Archives – it’s an hour long but if you use the National Archives catalog, it’s worth the time!

Resources

FREE access to the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS)’s Great Migration database! It’s free through 8 July!
FREE access to the Revolutionary War Collection by Fold3! It’s free from July 1st-July 15th!
Did you see the list of FREE Family History Webinars by Legacy Family Tree? See my blog post here or check out the website here and click on print brochure to see the full schedule. That’s a great educational opportunity!
FindMyPast Friday – last Friday (26 June) really. It sadly didn’t update before I had posted last week’s Friday Finds, here’s last week’s new records that focused on criminal records:
- England & Wales, Crime, Prisons, and Punishments;
- Home Office: Newgate Prison Calendar 1782-1853;
- Home Office: Convict Hulks, Convict Prisons and Criminal Lunatic Asylums: Quarterly Returns of Prisoners 1824-1876;
- Home Office: Criminal Entry Books 1782-1871;
- Home Office: Old Captions and Transfer Papers 1843-1871;
- Home Office and Prison Commission: Male Licenses 1853-1887;
- Metropolitan Police: Criminal Record Office: habitual criminals’ registers and miscellaneous papers;
- Australia Convict Ships 1786-1849;
- Australia Convict Conditional and Absolute Pardons 1791-1867;
- New South Wales Registers of Convicts’ Applications to Marry 1825-1851;
- Victoria Prison Registers 1855-1960;
- and Sligo Workhouse Admission and Discharge Registers 1848-1859
“History Colorado Collections Online” – a post by Dick Eastman of EOGN

Category: Resources Page 4 of 17

Tuesday’s Tip: For the Genealogy Professional Or Those Thinking About It

Tuesday’s Tip: Twile

Tuesday’s Tip: Etsy?

Friday Finds June 27th-July 3rd