Twitter

Just set up a Twitter account as practice for the Nebraska Learns project and am not sure it's anything I want to keep up with. My main interest is genealogy and I barely have enough time to research let alone keep up with this kind of minutae. The only thing that comes to mind that I might use it for would be if I wanted to notify family members of births or deaths in the family or remind them about an upcoming family reunion.

Maybe I'm just getting anti social in my old age.

Rayma

LibraryThing

I have been interested in using LibaryThing for my own library and the library at our local Family History Center. I've cataloged books at the FHC for nearly 20 years and have been looking for ways to simplify the whole process. I'm thinking that LibraryThing would be an easy way to catalog and make it available to all of their customers since most bring their laptops. I'm going to float the idea at the next staff meeting.

I made a small start with my own library and am amazed that I've made so many connections already. I think it's a project I'll continue to work on.

Rayma

Unclaimed Persons

In response to a comment on my last post, I wanted to tell everyone that the name of the group on Facebook that works with coroners to help identify the unclaimed bodies is "Unclaimed Persons." It was created by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak after she found out that a vast number of coroners and medical examiners offices were beginning to have more and more trouble with a backlog of "unclaims". She started this as a hobby and eventually fell upon the idea of having genealogist friends help. Facebook seemed to be that natural choice for a venue. I don't research every submission but I like to follow the process and see what turns up. One of my favorites was an unclaimed female from Florida who seemed to still be voting although she had been deceased for the last 10 years :-] We got the sheriff involved in that one. Anyway it's been very rewarding to see how successful this has been.

Rayma

Let's talk technology

I wanted to comment on how technology has helped genealogists in the last couple of years. Web 2.0 has opened a lot of doors in terms of sharing and learning about family history.

One of my favorite discoveries has been Root Television,www.rootstelevision.com, which is the brainchild of Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, a truly remarkable genealogist. Basically this is genealogy on demand 24/7. Just about everything is available. There are films from conferences, the PBS Ancestry series, special topics such as military records and digitizing photos, connections to various blogs, and RootsTube which is like a YouTube for genelaogists.

It's easy to use, just take a look at Megan's intro and you'll be able to navigate anywhere. I would caution you that it's addictive, so when you log on, plan to spend some time.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the use of social networking sites to help share family history data. I recently set up a Facebook account so I could join a group which helps coroners search for the families of individuals whose bodies had gone unclaimed. We search online sources for possible relatives and then report them to the group. Each case has an administrator who oversees the collection of the info and who then contacts the coroner with the results. A number of cases have been solved and it looks like more coroners and medical examiners are asking for help. Each member is emailed when a new case comes up. We're given what information the coroner was able to gather and we go from there.

This type of searching really sharpens your skills as a researcher and it's nice to know that even the 'unclaimed' have families who might be wondering where they are.

I also love the fact that some of my nieces and nephews have found me and asked to be my friend. It's be a great way to keep in touch and get updated pictures. Another plus was having an old schoolmate find me. We were able to catch up on several decades worth of news about ourselves and again, share pictures.

That's all for now.

Rayma