Follow Friday - Explore Stats, not my usual thing

Follow Friday - Explore Stats, not my usual thing


I don't normally spend much time on stats of my writings on the web. However, I've had an usual series of events recently, in my Squidoo.com writing platform, that has given me an opportunity to take a second look.

My lens (viewpoint webpage) "Explore Your Family History" was given the top honor of the Platform (founded by Marketing Guru Seth Godin) as "Lens of the Day" (LOTD) - running as number one on the site for 24 hours… on October 25; really neat. It got (and I'm using October 31 stats) 911 visits - with 298 Likes, to date.

Within the body of the lens, I included a Poll Question: "How far back in your family do you already know some family stories?"

Here are the results, to date:

4.2% - I really don't know any
4.2% - I've never really thought about it before
56.6% - Great-grandparents and before
27.7% - Grandparents
5.4% - Parents
1.8% - My own only

Total votes - 166

I personally answered each of the couple of hundred comments left on the lens. While some were from folks that have done family history extensively, on their own or with other family members, there were many, many with the comments like: I want to do this, but don't know how; Never seem to find the time; Wish I knew where to get started, etc.

For them, I created a follow-up lens: "7 Step Guide to Family History Study".


I request your comments on two areas: 1) Do you have thoughts on the stats? Do they seem normal and reasonable to you? Are there areas of concern, if this were your lens?

2) Your reaction to the two lenses, themselves.

P.S. These were created for a NON-family history and genealogy audience, generally, by the way. There are only a dozen or so in the audience who also write specifically on family history among their writing. So, in a way, I am 'reaching out' to new folks in the area - unlike my readers here on this blog.

Thanks for comments - here, on Facebook, Google+, or on your own blog.

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - Opperman Family Award and Gathering

Follow Friday - Opperman Family Award and Gathering

I have noticed others have used alternative purposed on this daily theme, so I am also - sharing 'affiliated family' information that you might like to follow - I want to write about them, and this seems appropriate.

National Dairy Shrine Award
George Opperman

On his blog, "I Hate Alzheimers," Mike Opperman recently posted: "Dad is a Pioneer" - a nice story about the National Dairy Shrine, a hall of fame for the dairy industry, induction of his Dad as a 'dairy industry Pioneer.' It is a very appropriate award as you can read in the announcement here. [Scroll down a bit, to see the neat story on George!]

May and George have been important influences in my life. May is the younger sister of my wife Nancy's mother, Ruth (Thomas) Bolger. So, technically, May and George are Aunt and Uncle (by marriage, to me). Both graduated from Iowa State University a few years before I attended. Nancy fondly recalls, as a young girl, riding a train to Beloit, Wisconsin, to stay with them on a short vacation.

They came into my life during my last two years of high school as Nancy and I were 'going steady' and we spent some holidays on their dairy farm in Manning, Iowa, a few miles west of Coon Rapids, our hometown. George spoke to me in very encouraging words about my plan to attend Iowa State. Also, they were just starting their family, as noted in the press release, and we started ours only a few years later. So, though we were a generation apart, our children grew up as contemporaries and are still close friends (as well as cousins) to this day. May and George "seemed like" as much older brother and sister as aunt and uncle. Know what I mean? We and our families scattered across the country, over the years, of course.

So, it was especially nice to their family almost all together again in this nice photo. And, it was especially gratifying to see George get this kind of recognition, even at this stage of his life. I know the family really appreciated even one more recognition of the many things George has done, over the years, for the dairy industry, as well as his family. Neat! ;-)


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - 1940 US Census Indexing Project

Follow Friday - 1940 US Census Indexing Project

I assume this will be my last post on this blog with respect to the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project - indexing the 1940 census. In recent days, both this project and the commercial indexing project at Ancestry.com have noted that the 'indexing is complete' in one form or another. I'll make reference to the post of Judy G. Russell, my favorite Legal Genealogist: Indexing: don't stop now as my recommended reading for the day. Read the entire post. She has expressed my sentiments better than I usually do.


Thanks to all who participated in the 1940 U.S. Census project at FamilySearch. I am amazed at how well it went. You can read Randy Seaver's analysis of the indexing projects from a link in Judy's post, above. She also encourages, as I do, each of us to keep doing some indexing regularly, to keep getting more records available, for each of us, online. Thank you for doing that.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Follow Friday - Week 27

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Follow Friday - Week 27


If I understand what Amy Coffin is suggesting in her 2012 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy, I believe I can follow these prompts and use them much as I have been posting of Fridays, the past years. Let's give it a try.



Week 27: Genealogy Publications. Genealogy publications are great for education and entertainment. Which one is your favorite? Who is the publisher? Why do you like this publication? How has it enhanced your own family history experience? Share any details you want potential readers to know about including features, articles, style, etc.

This week’s prompt runs from Sunday, July 1 through Saturday, July 7, 2012.

I'm going to mention "most likely" the first genealogy book my wife and I bought when we decided to 'get serious' about our genealogy research - it is copyright 1989!

Unpuzzling Your Past: A Basic Guide to Genealogy, Second Edition, by Emily Anne Croom, Better Way Books.

We still refer to it, from time to time, as recently as last week, when I wanted to see a 'form' I knew is always there for reference. We now have literally hundreds of genealogy related books on our shelves, but this is "old reliable!"

You asked, that is my answer!  ;-) Thanks, Emily! ;-)

Families are Forever!  ;-)

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Follow Friday - Week 25

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Follow Friday - Week 25


If I understand what Amy Coffin is suggesting in her 2012 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy, I believe I can follow these prompts and use them much as I have been posting of Fridays, the past years. Let's give it a try.

Week 25: Genealogy Database Software: Database programs have revolutionized the way we store and record our genealogy. Which one is your favorite? What are some of the tools and perks of the program that enhance your family history research? Share a link to the company website or vendor so others may learn more about this product.

This week’s prompt runs from Sunday, June 17 through Saturday, June 23, 2012.

I use only a MacBook Pro computer now, so I use Reunion 9. I used Reunion many years ago on my desktop computers. Then, I moved to several PC based programs. I was never particularly happy with any of them, though they all worked just fine. When I came back to the Mac, full-time, I tried several of the newer Mac programs, but eventually adopted the Reunion again, which is the same software that my wife uses. I am totally satisfied. I don't do a lot of 'fancy stuff' - so cannot comment on those kinds of things.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - Digitizing Books

Follow Friday - Digitizing Books

I've been following the changes in both book publishing and book digitization. A recent blog post from Dick Eastman speaks very well to this set of interests: "Scanning Books in the Family History Library: Not everyone is happy."

The second recent article of note updating and discussion the 'state of the publishing industry' was in The Nation recently: "The Amazon Effect."

I hope you find these as interesting as I did.

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - 52 Weeks - Family Traditions

Follow Friday - 52 Weeks - Family Tradition

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Week 23

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy 2012 prompts suggested by Amy Coffin; thanks, Amy!



Week 23: Family Traditions: For which family tradition are you most thankful? How did the tradition start? Which family members have been responsible for keeping the tradition alive and how has it shaped your own family history?

This challenge runs from Sunday, June 3 through Saturday, June 9, 2012.

Annual gathering of extended family - both maternal lines: Kinnick-Williams and Sorensen
I have written previously about the Kinnick-Williams picnics… I have a photo as early as 1932; they were annual events throughout the 1940s and 1950s as I was growing up. Although they have missed a few years, as people got older, this was renewed, last year (I was able to attend) and I just got a call from my uncle it will be held again next week (I will not be able to attend).
http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/2009/12/wordless-nearly-wednesday-annual.html
On the Sorensen (my maternal grandmother's family) the organization was not as formal, but they met fairly regularly. Here is one from the 1949:

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - 25 May 2012 - FHISO and Ancestry.com partner

Follow Friday - 25 May 2012 - FHISO and Ancestry.com partner


The Family History Information Standards Organization, Inc. (FHISO) and Ancestry.com, Inc. have finalized plans for Ancestry.com to become a founding member of FHISO. FHISO is being formed as an International organization to develop standards for the digital representation of family history and genealogical information.

 

I wrote about FHISO here in March. FHISO is a "standards-setting organization bringing the international family history and genealogical community together in a transparent, democratic forum for the purpose of developing information standards to solve today's interoperability issues."

Ancestry.comhttp://www.ancestry.com/ is the world's largest online family history resource, with 1.9 million paying subscribers. More than 10 billion records have been added to the site in the past 15 year. Ancestry users have created more than 34 million family trees containing approximately 4 billion profiles. I use ancestry.com regularly in my personal research. I am pleased to see they have joined the FHISO efforts.

In addition to its flagship site, Ancestry.com offers several localized Web sites designed to empower people to discover, preserve and share their family history. Do you support international standards in genealogy? I think it is a positive step forward. I hope more major organizations support the cause.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Follow Friday - Week 20

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Follow Friday - Week 20


If I understand what Amy Coffin is suggesting in her 2012 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy, I believe I can follow these prompts and use them much as I have been posting of Fridays, the past years. Let's give it a try.


Week 20: Social Media: Which social media tool do you appreciate the most? Has it increased your circle of friends? How has it benefitted your family tree?
This challenge runs from Sunday, May 13, 2012 through Saturday, May 19, 2012.

Facebook has been a boon to me and to my family. We all use it in a widely extended family, essentially coast to coast. I have made many new 'cousin' connections, as well.

I have also been able to create a very broad collection of 'genealogy friends' through the combination of blogging and Facebook. As some of us discussed online the other day, I have lost track of which geneablogger friends I have actually met in person and which I only 'know' online. I've been to one genealogy conference in the last two years, where I did meet a good number, but, I feel very close to a much larger group! THANK YOU!  ;-)

I mentioned blogging in passing, above, but I guess blogs are part of social media as well. My several blogs are such an ingrown part of my being, I really don't think of them as social media… that is where they stand with me.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Follow Friday - Week 19

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Follow Friday - Week 19


If I understand what Amy Coffin is suggesting in her 2012 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy, I believe I can follow these prompts and use them much as I have been posting of Fridays, the past years. Let's give it a try.


Week 19: Blog Series: For which blog series are you most thankful? Who writes the series and how has it helped your genealogy blogging experience? Be sure to include a link to the series so others can join in the fun.
This is totally impossible, of course, but I'm going to alter it only a little in order to be able to use this prompt, today, and be reasonable honest. Only one would not be fair, but I'll pick one… then add several more, to make it a tiny bit more realistic.

GeneaBlogger.com - I have to put this one first, because it has introduced me to so many other useful blogs.

Others I read every day, for a variety of reasons, usefulness to me, the best way to say it:

Genea-Musing - I don't read every post, but I would hate to miss the opportunity to decide which to read!
Planting the Seeds - I learn something from every post.
The Legal Genealogist - This one is new; but I don't want to miss a single post - I would missing something.
Marian's Roots & Rambles - She just always says something interesting in a way I like to hear it…

These are the ones I check every day. From these I may go anywhere. Lots of friends. Lots of other good blogs. I catch them from time to time, or when they get mentioned in those above.

OH, and there is one more, a new one:

The In-Depth Genealogist - this blog promotes the monthly digi-mag of the same name. The blog will have regular posts from the editors and writers. I believe it will become a 'must read' for many genealogist - if it isn't already. [Full disclosure - I am one of the contributors! ;-) ]


This challenge runs from Sunday, May 6, 2012 through Saturday, May 12, 2012.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - 2 March 2012 - FHISO

Follow Friday - 2 March 2012 - FHISO

The Family History Information Standards Organization, or FHISO, is a newly-formed international organization created to develop standards for the digital representation and sharing of family history and genealogical information. One community, one standard: I love this concept.

 FHISO will be a nonprofit, community-owned organization. Members will work transparently and collaboratively to identify, develop and maintain voluntary, open, consensus-based technical standards for international use. FHISO standards will be publicly available at zero or minimal cost on a non-discriminatory basis. Anyone will be able to implement the standards for any purpose without royalty or license fees. I see these as strong positives for our international community.

Membership will be available to all who participate in the global family history and genealogical community. I will share more about FHISO in future posts. FHISO's success depends on the voluntuary participation of all the global stakeholder groups. In the standard-setting process, there is no substitute for the active involvement of vendors, developers, technologists, users and family history or genealogy organizations. All of us must work together for the common good.

See Facebook Page.

I plan to post more details on FHISO. I like this organization. Stay tuned. I hope you agree.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Follow Friday - Week 2

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy

Follow Friday

Week 2

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy 2012 prompts suggested by Amy Coffin; thanks, Amy!

    •    Week 2 – Paid Genealogy Tools: Which paid genealogy tool do you appreciate the most? What special features put it at the top of your list? How can it help others with their genealogy research?
This week’s prompt runs from Sunday, January 8 through Saturday, January 14, 2012.


My wife and I use four subscriptions. Ancestry.com is the most used - We generally start our searches there - census data is very useful, including state as well as U.S. Occasionally there will be other records that are useful. We are still frustrated by the excess search results that have nothing to do with what we requested. We do use the Family Trees, but recognize them as only clues, not expecting them to be well researched or complete - though it is nice when they are!

Footnotes/Fold3 is especially good for military records searches.

Newspaper Archives.com is useful for much narrower searches, of course. Especially if you are looking for information for the first half or so of the 20th Century, if you find anything, it can be really neat details to add to your family history, such as: obituaries; anniversary, birth, death, graduation, workplace change announcements; social news; community news, etc. This information is rarely available from any other source.

I won't comment on the other one… or the others we have had, and no longer have. Hope these thoughts and comments are useful to someone. It was interesting to have a current discussion with my wife about current usage preparing to write this. That was useful.  ;-)


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follower Friday - 30 Dec 2011

Follower Friday

30 Dec 2011

I have mostly stayed out of the discussions of the last week or so regarding the 'genealogy community' and the respective roles of genealogy bloggers and genealogy societies therein. You've probably been reading some of them, but if you have not, and are interested, Randy Seaver, in his weekly "Best of the Blogs" post this week provides the links to most of the series posts.

Personally, I support an inclusive definition of 'genealogy community,' believe genealogy bloggers play a generally supportive and communications role, and that genealogy societies have an important role, but need to adapt their missions to the future needs of genealogists and family historians; many already have, of course.

I am mostly concerned that the distinctive resources that have been collected through the efforts of millions of individual society members in their local communities be preserved and made more widely available to families and researchers. I believe this mission deserves more discussion and attention. There are many alternatives available; I'm mostly concerned that many of these endangered distinctive resources will be lost to future researchers and families before adequate solutions are agreed upon and acted upon.


What do you think? What suggestions do you have? What have you personally done to help some of these endangered distinctive resources?  I'd love to hear about them.


Comments welcomed.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - 23 Dec 2011

Follow Friday

23 Dec 2011

Sometimes you just know a good referral the minute you see it. I do face one challenge, when I see one, though. I write for several different reasons, different venues (see the notes in the header for some of them). When I find a good referral, I have to stop and think: "Which audience do I want to write about this for?" This time, it was actually pretty easy - this is a Follow Friday referral:

"You're Researching but Are You Reading?" by Marian Pierre-Louise (one of my favorite bloggers, you've probably noticed) is especially good for my new readers, but should be reviewed by each of us doing any amount of family history or genealogy research. And, as always, do not fail to read the excellent comments. They are very good here, as usual.


What do you think? What have you read lately that has helped you with your research?  I'd love to hear about them.


Comments welcomed.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - 16 Dec 2011

Follow Friday

16 Dec 2011

I am always on the lookout for good ideas for involving young people (including kids) in their family history, especially in interesting group activities. My grandson has been involved in three such activities in the past year, at scouts, at school and at a school-related outside activity.

Joan Miller's report, "Kids climb their family tree at the library," provides good insights, both opportunities and some of the possible shortcomings,


What do you think? Have you been involved in a youth related family history activity?  I'd love to hear about them.


Comments welcomed.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - 9 Dec 2011

Follow Friday - 9 Dec 2011


Most of you are likely to have read this post, but, if you missed it, you'll want to catch it… and/or go back to read the many, many good comments added.

Greta Koehl's post, "Why I Want to Remain an Amateur," discusses as completely and eloquently as I have seen what many of us have been thinking seriously in recent times: How/where do I fit on the professional/amatuer genealogist spectrum?


What do you think? Does this article speak to you, as well?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.


Comments welcomed.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - 2 Dec 2011

Follow Friday

2 Dec 2011

Heather Wilkinson Rojo at her Nutfield Genealogy blog post: "Flip-Pal Project #2" has provided a nice summary of not only her use of the Flip-Pal scanner but also using the photos and her blog posts to create books for her family.

My wife loves her Flip-Pal, and I've been thinking seriously about creating some books from my blogs, so this article is very valuable, to me. I hope you find it useful, as well.


What do you think? What have your experiences been?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.


Comments welcomed.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - 25 Nov 2011

Follow Friday

25 Nov 2011

Each of us hope not to face the questions Marian (and her many, many commenters) discuss in today's recommended blog post: "My Genealogy Software Upheaval." However, we each almost inevitably will. Enjoy the read.

There are a number of great issues raised in this discussion beyond simply software issues.

What do you think? What have your experiences been?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.


Comments welcomed.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - 18 Nov 2011

Follow Friday

18 Nov 2011

My friend, Dan Curtis - Professional Personal Historian, just published a great, "Posts That Got You Talking," that I must share with you. I am confident there are 1 or 2, or 8, that you will want to read (again, perhaps) along with the comments. Some are 'commentaries' on life. Enjoy!

 Which of the eight caught your eye? Which will be useful to you? Had you seen these before?


Comments welcomed.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Follow Friday - 11 Nov 2011

Follow Friday

11 Nov 2011

Each Michael Hait blog post is worth reading. If you maintain a blog (or more than one, especially), this one is for you, if you haven't seen it yet. Great advice. OK, I'm partially posting it so I can come back and read it, from time to time.

On his Planting the Seeds: Genealogy as a Profession, but you don't have to be a professional to benefit, his post: "5 Ways to Manage Your Blog (or Blogs)."  6 tips, actually, that fit with my plans very well. I think you will benefit from them, as well.

What do you think? Do you do each of these to make your 'blogging life' better?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.


Comments welcomed.


Families are Forever!  ;-)