Genealogy Today LLC

Friday, October 10, 2008

Live Roots Meta Search Website

I'm a genealogy-junkie and have always tried to stay informed about new resources; but with so many outlets publishing new information, and no single place to search across different catalogs, it's not easy. That's what led to the concept of Live Roots -- a new website designed to help researchers locate genealogical data -- both online and offline, and either digitized or in-print. I'm partnering with major genealogy companies and many medium and smaller publishers to combine their respective catalogs into one repository.

Live Roots extends beyond the typical bounds of a traditional search engine or link directory by facilitating access to offline records and publications through partnerships with amateur and professional researchers who either own copies or are geographically close to the libraries and archives that do. This "live" part of the Live Roots concept lets your research continue even when the publication isn't available online. There's nothing more frustrating than finding a resource that could hold the missing link in your tree, and then discovering that there aren't any places online to access it.

The initial version of Live Roots was released today. Upcoming versions will expand the amount of information integrated into the catalog, add additional "live" partnerships and implement direct links with several online web sites; bringing seamless access to even more books and data.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Family Tree Connection At One Million Names and Growing

Our flagship database, Family Tree Connection, reached the one million name milestone last month. Launched in 2003, this project is about archiving and transcribing genealogical information from smaller documents published between 1830 and 1930.

Looking beyond the traditional genealogical vitals (birth, marriage, census and death records), the Family Tree Connection project captures information from a variety of organizations: schools, churches, clubs, societies, prisons, orphanages and business associations are just a few examples.

These organizations frequently published reports, proceedings and rosters that contain relevant information for genealogists often including addresses and occupations. Surprisingly, many clubs and societies kept track of their members long after they moved out of the area, giving genealogists all sorts of migration data to track their ancestors movements around the country.

Family Tree Connection is a subscription database with a very affordable annual rate of just $29.95 -- slightly more than two dollars a month for complete access to the existing database and all of the weekly updates (of typically 5,000 to 10,000 names).

Labels: genealogy databases

Monday, January 15, 2007

Tracking Surname Updates with RSS/XML

Back in 2004, we launched our free Surname Tracker service to help visitors to Genealogy Today stay advised of new records added for the particular surnames they were researching. This service was based on the GenWatcher service Illya had developed for his personal web sites at D'Addezio.com. Since then, over 80,000 genealogists have signed up for the Surname Tracker.

While delivery by e-mail continues to be the preference of a majority of our visitors, many have begun asking for an RSS feed so they can get the update news even faster. Currently, the e-mail version of Surname Tracker sends out about 2 to 3 updates a month. With the new RSS/XML feeder version, you can receive the updates instantly. We've added quick links for many of the popular RSS-based services, plus a generic XML button for adding the feed to any RSS-reader.

This new service will be busy for the next few days, as concurrently with this release we've published another 12,000 records to the databases at Genealogy Today. This update included two very interesting finds:

Nevada Indigent Insane 1879-1880 Report - Report of the Commissioners for the Care of the Indigent Insane of the State of Nevada For the Years 1879 and 1880. This incredible document lists the names of the Nevada residents that went mad and were cared for at Langdon and Clark's Asylum in California. Including in the listing is the "Cause of Insanity", which ranges from "religion", to "epilepsy", "hereditary", and even "jealousy" and "unrequited love".

History of the American Legion, 1919-1924 Virginia - History of The American Legion, Department of Virginia, 1919 - 1924. Including History of Individual Posts and Roster of Membership as of August 1, 1924. The roster includes thousands of names of people involved with the American Legion, and has pictures of the officers and executive committee members.

Many of the items were added to the Family Tree Connection database. For a list of the new resources, check out today's Genealogy and How blog post.

Labels: research agents, Surname Tracker

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Rolling in the Genealogical New Year 2007

In the spirit of bringing in the New Year with a splash, Genealogy Today published over 24,000 new names across several databases. Included in the release were 473 war ration books, 197 funeral cards and 182 mug shots and wanted posters.

Also included were two extremely interesting and unique resources:

Indianapolis Police 1910 Souvenir Review - Dedicated to the Indianapolis Police Department, June the First 1913. Includes a roster and history of the department, along with many photos. This amazing book was filled with names of the officers, along with some history of the department.

Citizens' Mutual Fire Ins. Co. 1883 Members - By-Law No. 9, As Amended, And List of Members of the Citizens' Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Of Kent, Allegan and Ottawa Counties. Grand Rapids, Mich., 1883. This book had over 8,000 names in it.

Many of the items were added to the Family Tree Connection database, which reached the 750,000 name milestone with this update. For a list of the new resources, check out today's Genealogy and How blog post.

Starting the year with over 1.92 million names online, Genealogy Today has set the goal of reaching 2.50 million names by the end of 2007. This will include significant additions to the war ration book and business card collections.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Nebo Reporter, December 28, 2006

GenealogyToday.com was mentioned in an article, "War Ration books are a hidden treasure," which discussed the war rationing process of World War Two and our related indexing project of the books. The article states, "a new movement is underway to preserve, protect against loss, and share these items of everyday life," and discusses how books can be donated to our project.

Labels: news clippings

Saturday, December 9, 2006

You Always Find a Friend

Genealogy for many is a self-rewarding hobby. Those that find multiple interested family members are among the lucky ones. That's what's so amazing about the Salt Lake Christmas Tour, and it's emphasized by the saying on the back of the tour t-shirts: "I may not find an ancestor, but I always a friend."

And from some of the attendees, I've also heard that you may also find a cousin!

Imagine having breakfast, saying "does anyone have {surname}" and getting a "sure, I do" from across the table. Then after a little exploration learning that you're sitting across from someone connected to your tree!

That's how interesting this tour is. There is a tremendous amount of information sharing among the attendees. And while some say that nothing beats high-speed Internet access, the bandwidth "across the table" often will exceed even the best online capacity.

It's been an exciting week, hearing so many success stories. The combination of having on-site access to the Family History Library and the tour coaches, has led to many genealogical discoveries -- some of which have remained elusive for years.

While many Internet "prophets" predict that the growth of online genealogical information will soon eliminate the need for travelling for your genealogy, nothing will ever be able to compare to this unique "research family" reunion.

Labels: genealogy tours, Salt Lake City

Monday, December 4, 2006

Do You Know What You're Missing?

I'm in Salt Lake City this week participating in the Leland Meitzler [pictured right with Donna Potter Phillips] Annual Christmas Tour. I've never been on a research tour before, but have visited the LDS Family History Library many times. Now I get it. Accomplishing in one week that would otherwise take months, (as the MasterCard commercials say) priceless.

This morning kicked off with a session by George Ott who essentially in one hour unlocked all of the mysteries of finding information in The Library. We all know how to use a library right? Well, approaching this library the same way you would your local library will work, but just much, much more slowly.

Then you have the team of professionals coaches at your disposal -- each having a specialty to ensure that you have a resource regardless of the geographic regions that you are most challenged by. The researchers hang out in The Library all week, and all you have to do is stop by, signup for a time slot, and you've got a free appointment. Signup with a research each day of the week and think about how much help your going to get and how much money that would have cost if you had to hire them yourself.

They are really "coaches". They don't tell you "oh, go look that up in the ...". They give you the play by play , "Go to this floor, check this reference book, find the FHL reel and find the document. And then come back tomorrow and we'll talk about the next step." It's really like having a coach on the sidelines helping you get to the goal line.

Most of the coaches also teach classes on various topics throughout the week. Pick the topics you would like a little guidance on. Learn tips and tricks for researching that particular topic in The Library.

Now I'm starting to see the value of spending a week in Salt lake City on the Christmas Tour, and not all tours offer this level of service. Have you ever been on a genealogy tour? Was it anything like this?