Is it the end?

I wanted to post a few comments about the Library 2.0 lessons we just completed. I love learning online. I've done it for years and its great to be able to work on these interesting lessons as I have time. Some surprises-who would have thought YouTube and Flickr would have anything of interest for a genealogist? I plan to continue with LibaryThing, my blog, and the podcsts for sure. Some of the other things like Twitter I don't really think will help me much.

Anyway it was a very useful and fun program and I would love to continue with more.

Rayma

Podcasts

Just finished the podcast lesson and added one that I think is really fun to my rss feeds. "The Genealogy Guys" podcast has been around awhile and is very popular with researchers. Two prominent genealogists review news and discuss various topics. I'm listening right now and they are discussing a blogger conference. I think this is something I would keep up with.

Rayma

YouTube for Genealogists

I would never have thought YouTube would have anything to offer a genealogist, but I found several nice videos. One was about the 'joy' of genealogy research sponsored by World Vital Records which was very well done. Several were very helpful for first time genealogists in that they offer short lessons on specific types of records. One of the videos made me laugh out loud. It was from the Birmingham library and featured the little yellow marshmallow Peeps. They called it "Finding Your Peeps" and produced it like a silent movie, tinkly piano and all. I thought it was a clever way to advertise their services and materials for genealogists.

Rayma

Rayma

Applications * Web 2.0

I'm running a little behind so I'm going to combine comments on two lessons.

The applications we looked at included Google and Zoho. We've used Google for a year or two for our scheduling at the library and it works well. I did more experimenting with Zoho and found it to be similar and maybe a little easier to use. It would be a great tool to use to keep track of genealogy research. A reseach log could be made on Zoho sheet and the word program would be a way to keep notes on research.

What I really liked was the next lesson on 2.0 sites. I chose genealogy, of course, and experimented with My Heritage and Geni. I had looked into My Heritage before but never did much with it because I was using FamilyLink and the LDS church site. After playing with it a little more, I found it extremely easy to use. I love the celebrity morphing function-what a hoot! Geni is very similar but a tad less easy to use. I went ahead and set up accounts in both. I've had really good luck with social networking sites for sharing family info and I think I like to cast a wider net.

Rayma

Wikis

Just finished the Wiki lesson which was OK. We've used Wikis at our library to trace lost holds and share other information so I was pretty familiar with the concept. Genealogists are beginning to use Wikis to share information about surnames and localities. You see references popping up in all kinds of genealogy sites. I'm concerned about someone editing information that I havd already verified so I use with caution. That's my experience with wikis.

Rayma

Library 2.0

Just finished our excercise on Library 2.0. I find the new technology interesting and useful in many ways. My hope is that we can embrace the new without losing some of the 'old' things that our customers have come to love about our library system.

Rayma

I found a program on SlideShare called Colonnial and State Census Records which is a nice overview of these research materials.

State Census Presentation for U.S. Genealogy Records

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Delicious

Just finished exploring the social bookmarking site, Delicious. I have tons of bookmarks on my computer for genealogy sites but no way of using my 'favorites' when I'm not at my computer. I think this will be a great way to store them and do a little sharing with others. I've already added a bunch and will probably add more. This will be a great genealogy research tool.

Rayma

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

Image Generators

I took a look at some of the image generators on Flickr and I think these are for people with too much time on their hands. I don't see much to help me with library work or genealogy.

Rayma

Flickr

I found this image of a tombstone while I was searching Flickr for interesting pictures. It's a genealogist's dream because it gives a complete genealogy right on the tombstone. It's also a great example of tombstone art. www.flickr.com/photos/oldeastsidr/829567271.

Rayma

RSS feeds

I've been experimenting with RSS feeds and successfully connected to some of the 2.0 participants and to some genealogy feeds. Can't wait to see how this plays out.

Rayma

Instant Messaging

Just learned how to "IM" today and was surprised at how quick it is. I'm not sure how useful this will be to genealogy research. I guess time will tell.

Intro to me

This is my first post on my new blog. I'm hoping to dedicate it to my findings and musings about my genealogical research. One of the things I hope to accomplish is to share this information with my own family and other researchers who are working on some of my lines. I have some brick walls I want to break down and the blog may be a way to do that. We'll see what happens!