Thursday, April 19, 2007

The Future of Free Online Genealogy...An Introduction to LivingGenealogy

LivingGenealogy.com is a new, 100% free genealogy site that offers four key features:

Ancestor Pages: Users can create a page (using the simple template) for each of their ancestors. Then they (and their relatives) can add photos, memories, journal excerpts, etc., collaboratively authoring their ancestors' biographies and creating a more complete picture of who their ancestors were. In addition to the more complete view we get when more people are involved in telling their ancestors' stories, this information is easy to share and universally available online.

Place Pages: Just like Ancestor Pages, users can create pages dedicated to geographic locales - their ancestors' hometowns, countries, regions, etc. Users who have been there or live there now contribute their photos, information, travel tips, genealogy research ideas, etc. to the page. Users who haven't had the chance to visit their ancestral hometowns can go on a sort of "virtual tour" through the information and photos others upload. Those who are planning a trip to these places can also connect with users who have been there and get tips and insights before they go.

User Groups: Anyone can create and join user groups. These can be public (like everybody with ancestors from Liverpool) or private (like secure family-specific groups where family members can collaborate on research and keep up to speed on each other's progress). User groups are a great way to connect with others and leverage each other's resources and insights to create synergies and avoid duplication of efforts.

Blogs: Every family seems to have its champion of genealogy who is out front researching their roots. These frontrunners can write a blog at LivingGenealogy.com that allows them to share their insights and the excitement of their discoveries with other family members who aren't as genealogically inclined...yet.

Connect with Relatives: LivingGenealogy.com is all about connection. Through each of the above features, relatives close and far can connect, collaborate and capture their heritage. And throughout the site, everybody's contributions are stamped with their username so that when new information and insights arise, other relatives (even those we didn't know we had) can get in touch. Family histories can also be shared with other relatives through the "Email this page" link at the bottom of every page.

Check it out and register free at LivingGenealogy.com!

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Introducing Place Pages, a Revolution in Online Genealogy

Have you ever wanted to go visit your ancestral homelands...stroll through the far away villages from whence your ancestors came? Have you had the opportunity of visiting and would love to share your photos and memories with your relatives who haven't yet been able to make the trip?

Well now you can, with Place Pages, a revolution in online genealogy!

Here's how it works:

These pages work the same way as "Ancestor Pages" in that once a page is created for any geographic locale, anybody else can add photos, histories, memories, etc.

This is a great way for those who haven't been able to travel to their ancestral hometowns to go on a virtual tour. Users can upload photos past and present, travel tips, tips for researching genealogy in these towns and countries, etc. - a great way to get to know where your roots are from!

For an example of a "Place Page" click here. To create your own "Place Page" click on "Place Page" under "Create" on the navigation bar at LivingGenealogy.com.

You can also browse places that have already been created using the "Browse Place Pages" link at the top left of the navigation bar.

As always, we'd love to hear what you think and any suggestions you have for improving the site. Thanks again for your feedback and for helping to build the largest genealogy community on the Internet!

Adelsgatan (Adels Street) in Visby, Gotland, Sweden

Friday, March 9, 2007

Take the LivingGenealogy Challenge!

As a generation, we are priveleged to enjoy an abundance of technologies that enrich our lives. We have cellular phones, computers, microwaves, digital cameras, the Internet and many, many more technological miracles that even our grandparents could never have imagined.

As such, our generation is uniquely positioned to use some of this technology to preserve and share our heritage. With the click of a mouse and a few stikes of a keyboard, we can record some of our insights into our ancestors' lives, preserving them for future generations to get to know them too and sharing their lives instantly with relatives near and far anywhere in the world.

This week, I am offering a challenge, to myself and to any other LivingGenealogists interested in accepting:

Create a "Person Page" for each of our parents, grandparents or great-grandparents.

This generation (our parents, grandparents or great-grandparents) is so fascinating! They have lived through world wars, the rise and fall of nations, the invention of the automobile and air travel, etc., etc., etc. And because they're only a generation away, it is quite easy for us to obtain photos, stories and memories from their lives.

Creating a "Person Page" for each of them - in which we record some of the most interesting aspects of their unique lives, and the photos that tell a thousand words - will allow these ancetors' stories to live on, touching the lives of their descendents for generations to come and introducing us to our own heritage.

Do you accept the challenge?

Can you create a page for each of your grandparents or great-grandparents? It's easy!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Genealogy Enters the New Web

Welcome to the LivingGenealogy blog. This blog parallels the blog I (username "Kevin") write on www.LivingGenealogy.com. LivingGenealogy.com is a new website that bring genealogy into the New Web or Web 2.0. It is an online genealogy community.

LivingGenealogy is a brand new site and is still in beta. I'll use this blog as we move through our beta stage to introduce you to LivingGenealogy and to keep users up to speed on new developments. I invite you to check out the site here.
What is LivingGenealogy?

LivingGenealogy is a new kind of genealogy web site for a new kind of Internet. The old Internet was all about looking things up, reading and maybe looking at pictures. The new Internet is about collaborating, creating and connecting. It's about bringing people together to do more than we could ever do alone. And where is that more important than in genealogy?

At LivingGenealogy, you can collaborate with other users: share information, share pictures, share stories. You can create and join user groups to share information, tips and experiences.

You can create: create pages for your ancestors and make them come to life through memories, stories and photos. And you can contribute your research, memories and photos to pages created by other users about your ancestors.

You can connect: Did somebody post new information about one of your ancestors? Just click "contact author" and get in touch with them and ask where they got it. Do you have a treasured photo of your great aunt that other relatives would like to cherish too? Upload it to that ancestor's page or post it in your family's user group.

Together we can collaboratively write, share, update and preserve the world's greatest family history!

Note: here are some screen shots from LivingGenealogy.com:

The above picture is a typical "person page." Anyone can create one for any of their ancestors - and anybody else can add to it with their own research, photos, memories, stories, etc.

This picture shows some photos added to this "person page" along with some memories that were contributed to an already created page.