Illya D'Addezio's Blog

Why Splinter Genealogists Away from their Cousins

2009-07-10T11:11:00.006-05:00

This week the folks at FamilyLink, in an attempt to generate another revenue stream, invited genealogists to join a Ning network site named GenealogyWise.com, and in fact, offerred to pimp (oh, sorry, pay) some of them to make the new site look "lived in" with content prior to an official launch later this month.

I have no issue with Ning networks, and in fact manage two myself. The concept of creating your own themed social network is wonderful, and might be something Facebook should consider offering.

Where I think the GenealogyWise concept is a bit misguided in trying to splinter genealogists away from Facebook for the purpose of making it look like the "official" genealogy social network. This will undoubtedly help them attract non-facebook genealogists to the site, which they will need to do in order to generate revenue.

Rather than try to pry genealogists away from Facebook to connect with non-Facebook genealogists, why not come up with a slick way to draw more non-Facebook genealogists into Facebook? Oh, right, if they did that, how would they make money off of the reputations of hard-working professional genealogists and bloggers?

Where GenealogyWise cannot compete with Facebook, is in connecting genealogists with cousins that have (or have had) no interest in genealogy. I have no interest in abandoning Facebook (as some genealogists on Facebook have suggested) and the relatives that I've been able to connect with. I've seen comments from some genealogists new to Facebook to the effect that "they don't understand what Facebook is all about." Well, it's a phenomenal tool for connecting with distant cousins that you may not otherwise have been able to locate.

Sure, the Ning functionality is cool (like I said, I run two Ning networks myself), but something about GenealogyWise makes me feel uneasy. It just doesn't seem right that a for-profit genealogy company should be fueling a social network that should be independent and neutral (as Facebook is). Will the folks from Ancestry.com or Footnote.com be joining GenealogyWise and contributing? Or will they remain on Facebook? I value my interactions with them.

And why not own up to it? Why doesn't the masthead banner say something like "A FamilyLink Service"? Do the 1,400 members realize that this site is operated by FamilyLink who will profit from their use of GenealogyWise through advertising? How come when Ancestry.com flipped RootsWeb.com to RootsWeb.Ancestry.com (and added advertising), many genealogists chose to abandon the site, and yet "we" seem to have no problem with GenealogyWise doing the same thing?

Yes, I joined GenealogyWise and intend to stay involved, but I'd rather see the site turned into a neutral, not-for-profit network so everyone can participate. At a minimum, FamilyLink should step up to the plate and clearly disclose that they are the company behind GenealogyWise (just as Ancestry does on the RootsWeb home page).

It's nice to visit a place mentioned in an item that I transcribe

2009-06-14T17:17:00.002-05:00

Last week, I picked up a document at auction that listed the pew holders for a church in Morristown, which is very close to where I live. The name sounded familiar, as we spent New Year's Eve at Morristown's First Night recently. The document was "List of the Pew Holders and Sitters in the Church of the Assumption, Morristown, N. J., January 1st, 1898," and after uploading the transcribed information this morning, I decided to take a drive and photograph the church.

There's a historical marker outside the church that reads, "Gothic revival building is the oldest standing church in Morristown. Replaced 1848 wooden church which ministered to Irish immigrant families in surrounding Dublin area."

From the church's website: "In 1847, a lot of land was purchased by Father Louis Senez, (pastor of St. Vincent Parish in Madison) for $400 to build the first Catholic Church in Morristown. The building of the church was then left to Father Bernard McQuaid. The original wooden church structure stood on the site of the present-day rectory. By August 15,1948, the modest church was roofed and Father McQuaid gave the church the title of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mass was said for the first time in the church on Christmas Day, 1948. The new church was dedicated on March 5, 1849."

The church is located at 91 Maple Ave, Morristown, NJ 07960.

On the cover of the document that I acquired it states, "Every resident of this Parish is in duty bound to contribute his and her share to the support of the Church and the Church Work. The principal source of revenue is the renting of pews and sittings. Nobody may reasonably expect to participate in the benefits of the Parish, unless identified with it by the renting of a pew or sitting."

It was such a nice pleasure to be able to visit a place mentioned in one of the documents included in my Family Tree Connection project. All of the photos were uploaded to a folder on Flickr.

Is Dan Lynch the Indiana Jones of Genealogy?

2009-05-27T12:13:00.003-05:00

Last night I had the pleasure of listening to Dan Lynch speak at a local library about his book, Google Your Family Tree. I have to be honest, I've known about Dan's book since it was released, and had wondered in the past why he chose to write on this topic, and also why genealogists would want to buy such a book. But hearing Dan talk about the subject, and seeing the audience reactions, made me realize that I've really taken Google (and searching techniques) for granted.

I especially love the subtitle of Dan's book, "Unlock the Hidden Power of Google." It's a great reminder of how much genealogy research, especially in the online world, is truly an "adventure." And just like Indiana Jones in the movies, genealogists need the skills necessary to filter through the enormous amount of information on the Internet and avoid those poisonous darts (i.e. overwhelming search results) that frustrate us.

The talk last night was sponsored by the Family History Interest Group (FHIG) of Bernards Township Library, and the Morris Area Genealogy Society (MAGS), and was a packed room full of avid genealogists equally curious to learn some of Dan's "secrets" about the all-too-familiar Google search engine. The crowd was quiet for the first thirty minutes, or so, as Dan covered some of the basics to ensure everyone understood the essential components of Google. Then the "oohs" and "aahs" started, as Dan revealled some of his favorite tips for filtering results.

Oh sure, I bet you were hoping that I'd spill the beans and share Dan's top tips. No such luck, there's no shortcut to becoming a better search engine user. Dan's talk was just the tip of the iceburg, and you really need to dig into his book (most folks I've talked to say every time they pick up their copy and re-read certain chapters, they learn something new).

Bravo to Dan for taking on the challenge of making all genealogists better online sleuths. I now see how his efforts will benefit all information providers (small and large), by teaching genealogists to find what they are looking for more efficiently. Genealogists often speculate that the information they need to break down their brickwalls is "out there" somewhere. Why not spend $34.95 and purchase this book to gain the skills needed to actually find it!

Vital Records for Railroad Employees

2009-05-25T07:48:00.007-05:00

At a recent live auction that I attended there were three box lots of a monthly publication for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen listed. I had been collecting a similar publication for the same group that later merged with another and became the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, so my interest in these three lots was high.

This may sound weird, but at these auctions I prefer NOT to look too closely at the items or lots. I look just enough to ensure that there is some genealogical value. That way I'm less disappointed if I don't win the lot.

I "went for it" on these three, won them, and quickly shuffled them off to my truck. (Sadly, items do tend to mysteriously walk away at these auctions). The next morning I flew to Raleigh, N. C. for the NGS conference; it wasn't until this weekend that I finally had a chance to sit down and sort through the boxes.

Just to put into perspective how exciting this find was, my previous collection of these publications focused between 1908 to 1916, although I did win a large lot off eBay covering 1928-1933. Recently, I managed to get a handful of copies from some dealers dating back to 1897.

After sorting all 98 issues in these three boxes, I was amazed to see that they went all the way back to 1889! This is earlier than any issue I've ever seen for sale or online. Oh, why do I like these publications? They are filled with promotions, marriages, births of children and deaths of the members (i.e. railroad employees).

Yesterday, I transcribed the ten issues from 1889 (March and November were missing), and just posted them online as part of my Family Tree Connection (subscription) database project. The name indexes are free to search, and you can browse through the issues by visiting http://LiveRoots.com or using the Live Roots for Facebook application.

Each week, I will attempt to post another year of this amazing collection.

Industry Professionals are Genealogy Resources

2009-05-22T13:44:00.004-05:00

When I started the Live Roots project, including living people was one of the first things that I considered. Behind every genealogical resource (e.g. website, book, podcast, etc.) is a person (or a group of people), and it's helpful to genealogists to know the "who's who" of our industry. The Live Roots project makes it easy to explore related resources from the same person, so you can see if they blog, write books, speak at events, all from their profile page. Genealogy researchers, writers and speakers are invited to signup for a free Live Roots profile at either the GenealogyToday.com or LiveRoots.com websites.

Did you know that back in 1981, Mary Keysor Meyer and P. William Filby edited a book called Who's Who in Genealogy & Heraldry (published by Gale Research Co)? I actually have a copy of the 1990 revised edition. Pretty neat book. Each listing has personal (with DOB), career activities and genealogical publications sections. Amazing how many industry professionals there were even back then; the second edition boasts 1,100 biographees. At a quick glance, I see that my friends Leland Meitzler, Arlene Eakle, Tom Kemp, Craig Scott and Kory Meyerink are all listed.

This book is a reminder of just how important industry professionals, many of whom make genealogy their full-time occupation, are to genealogists around the world. It would be incredible to capture as many individuals in the Live Roots project.

Megan Smolenyak was Genetealogically Speaking in Secaucus, NJ Today

2009-02-14T13:58:00.007-05:00

I had the pleasure of attending a very informative talk by Megan Smolenyak at the Secaucus Public Library, hosted by the Hudson County Genealogical Society. Genetealogy is a term that Megan coined for the growing offshoot of genealogy focusing on how genetics can supplement traditional genealogical research.

I've sat through other genetic genealogy talks and read dozens of articles, so I had a general understanding of the topic. Megan's talk, however, was wonderful as she reviewed each of the genetic testing options and how they relate to genealogy. She highlighted many misconceptions about DNA & genealogy, and suggested ways to counter them when persuading those stubborn relatives who haven't opened their mouths for you to swab.

Many genealogists are driven to research to find deeper connections to their ancestors. What better way than through the DNA running throughout our bodies! One quote from Megan really caught my attention. She said we are all "living representatives of our ancestors," which is a great way of looking at this. All men carry the same Y-Chromosome as their male ancestors, and women share common MtDNA with their female ancestors.

What I love about Megan's talks is that she keeps them very current. Her active role in the industry allows her to share trends she has observed and make predictions as to where this all may lead. She relates which projects are just launching, and which have been around (and thus have a larger DNA sampling databases).

While I had a Y-33 test done of myself back at the end of 2007, there haven't been any exact matches yet, but a quick check on DNA.Ancestry.com is showing more close matches have appeared since my last visit. Megan shared with the group the websites that have DNA searches, so I really should take my haplotype data and check for matches in those other projects. My quick visit to DNA.Ancestry.com also revealed they have refined their haplogroup predictions. When I got the results in 2007 they said it was J2. Now they are saying its J2a1h, also known as the "Cultivators".

If you hear about an upcoming Megan speaking event in your area, make sure you attend. If you don't have that luxury, you can always purchase her Trace Your Roots with DNA book and perhaps learns some new tricks for breaking down those brick walls.

Thanks go to the Hudson County Genealogical Society for hosting this excellent genealogy session. If you have roots in Hudson County, New Jersey, be sure to join this group. They publish a quarterly newsletter that includes a schedule of upcoming meetings.

The Oldest Genealogy Sites - Class of 1995

2009-02-03T19:43:00.005-05:00

After developing the Genealogy WHOIS service on Live Roots, I thought it would be interesting to see which web sites were launched right when (or a few minutes before) the World Wide Web started becoming mainstream. Here they are:

newsbank.com (12/Apr/1995) [parent of genealogybank.com]
everton.com (23/Apr/1995)
heirsearch.com (2/May/1995)
genealogy.org (23/May/1995)
familytreemaker.com (22/Aug/1995)
vitalchek.com (22/Aug/1995)
jewishgen.org (15/Oct/1995)
cemetery.org (23/Dec/1995)
tbox.com (31/12/1995) [Matt Helm's company site]

This is, of course, based on the date the domain name was registered, and does not indicate that the web site went online at that time. Likewise, there were probably a bunch of genealogy sites popping up on public domains (e.g. aol.com, compuserve.com) that I don't have an easy method of capturing. The class of 1996 looks to be a bit larger... stay tuned! (If I missed one, please share the details with me so I can add it)

Additions after original post:

familytree.com (20/Apr/1995)

Interesting Genealogy Finds of 2008

2009-01-01T13:02:00.002-05:00

2008 was a busy year for my data entry team. Here are some of the more interesting documents that were transcribed as part of the Family Tree Connection project:

1926 Eligible List for Patrolman in New York City

List of Registered Maine Embalmers 1913

U. S. Army 1863 Invalid Corps Transfers, August 11th
U. S. Army 1863 Invalid Corps Transfers, September 3rd
U. S. Army 1863 Invalid Corps Transfers, September 7th
U. S. Army 1863 Invalid Corps Transfers, September 12th

NYC Badminton Club 1892 Roster

Little River Co., Arkansas 1898 List of Electors

American Magicians Society 1930 Members List

Plumas County Calif. 1910 Precinct Register Index

New Haven Soldiers who Lost Their Lives in the War of the Rebellion

National Selected Morticians 1929 Proceedings

West Virginia Casualties in the War With Germany

54th National Master Plumbers Association Directory

I expect that 2009 will be filled with many more of these unique resources. Stay tuned!

Live Roots Launched Today!

2008-10-10T09:42:00.004-05:00

I've been very actively involved in online genealogy since 1985. I've seen how the practice of genealogy research has radically evolved in a relatively short period of time. At the same time, I've seen how the rapid changes spurned by the widespread adoption of the Internet have made the pursuit of family history more challenging than ever. It has become almost effortless to locate vast amounts of information. Yet, a tremendous effort is required to determine if any of this information is truly relevant to the research in question.

It was just about a year ago when, during a conversation with a peer, I began to realize that this problem is becoming even more of an issue with the entrance of additional data providers (e.g. Footnote.com) into the genealogy market. That's when I conceived the idea of Live Roots. What if there was one place you could go to see not only what's new, but what's being called new, but really isn't. Everyone's genealogy budget is tight, so doesn't it make sense to be diligent about your spending and make sure that if you're going to subscribe to another genealogy site that the resources it has aren't already on sites that you are a subscriber (or even worse: available from a free service).

I'm realistic, however, and realize that there's no way to launch a web site with these lofty objectives addressed from the onset. It will take months (possibly even years) to carefully review each item in the catalog to determine the source. And in some cases it will require the cooperation of the data provider to answer my inquiry for source details when they aren't clearly listed on their site.

Please do not expect Live Roots to have all the answers -- it's just not possible to achieve 100% coverage of an industry that continues to grow at a remarkable pace. While many genealogy sites boast about the large numbers of links they've captured, I plan to devote an equal amount of (or perhaps even more) time towards reviewing the quality of the resources cataloged.

Jury Summons becomes Genealogical Adventure

2007-10-29T17:52:00.000-05:00

As luck would have it, my jury group was given a two hour lunch today, so after grabbing a quick bite, I went across the street from the Union County Court House and visited the Elizabeth Public Library's new Elizabeth Room. This local history room was opened in mid-September and was filled with many interesting items.

Materials include a variety of books, The Elizabeth Daily Journal and its index, which was completed by Elizabeth Public Library, a pretty complete series of city directories going back to the late 1800's, maps, photos, high school yearbooks and other records of local interest. A microfilm machine is dedicated to the room, as well as new furniture and a computer. The Local History Room has been made possible with support from the Trustees of The Josephine Ebbe Kenah Trust.

I found some interesting items that will be added to my Family Tree Connection database, including an Elizabeth Police Department report from 1927, three Elizabeth Fire Department reports (for 1902, 1903-4 and 1905), a 1907 yearbook for the Elizabeth Board of Trade, and a bunch of other local items of genealogical interest.

So, what I expected to be a long, boring day, turned in to something quite unexpected. Many of the items I photocopied will be indexed and uploaded next Monday (Nov. 5, 2007).

No News is Still Good News, Right?

2007-10-05T13:08:00.000-05:00

The other day someone told me that I was wasting my time by scanning and indexing war ration books that had little (or no) information on them. I tried to explain to him that as a genealogist, it is better to know that a document does in fact exist, but has little informative value, than in endlessly wondering how to locate it. He didn't accept my argument.

Don't genealogists have to accept that along the way they will encounter genealogical duds? I have a death certificate of a female ancestor and the maiden name is blank. I was certainly bummed when I got the document, and even more confused when I saw that the witness (i.e. person providing the information) was the woman's son! He didn't even know that detail about his mother. Up until that point, getting that death certificate was my sole quest. Once I saw it, even though it was disappointing, I was able to move on.

Ration books have so many cool pieces of information (when they are filled out properly), which is much like so many other documents genealogists crave. When I acquire these documents, I don't always know how complete they will be, and I see no reason not to scan/archive the ones which are lacking.

Ration books are also somewhat unique in that they have series and serial numbers on them, so even the blank ones can yield relationship information by noting the books that are in the same series and serial number range. You may not be able to tell who were the parents, but you'll have a good idea that they were all in the same household.

I was always fascinated by the Columbo movies. As a detective, Columbo was able to piece together a murder mystery with the smallest of clues. As a genealogist, sometimes these partial documents can be just as important.

Genealogical duds are a fact of life for researchers. If you can think of a better argument for me NOT to scan/index these partial documents, I'd love to hear it.

Genealogy is Boring. Say What?

2007-10-01T10:47:00.000-05:00

I was browsing around the other day and stumbled upon an article where the writer, Mike Elgan, starts out by saying, "I've always found genealogy boring." I've always considered genealogy to be one of the most passionate hobbies around. Connecting with pieces of your heritage brings out so many different emotions.

Then, after the shock of his statement wore off, I began to wonder if what he really meant was that online genealogy was boring -- or more accurately, frustrating. I do find it somewhat challenging to conduct research online when all of the information you need to search is stored in a variety of different "islands." There is no meta-genealogy search engine, and that's what Mike was speculating about in his article.

He ponders, "Is combining all genealogy data too scary?" I don't think so. Just like anything in life, there will be bad people who take advantage of improved access to information. Genealogists would certainly benefit from the efficiency of being able to access information from a variety of online databases in a single search.

Recently, a friend asked for some help in tracking down any immigration information regarding her grandfather. It was a simple request, but it took me over an hour to make the rounds (Ancestry.com, WorldVitalRecords.com, GenealogyBank.com and Footnote.com) before I located a relevant document. It must be challenging for some researchers to contend with the different search techniques required to find information at each of these (and other) sites.

Will it take a company like Google to persuade our industry to provide open interfaces to their databases? The databases of my company, Genealogy Today, are small in comparison to the other players, but I'm ready to join the bandwagon and would be willing to develop an XML interface.

Are Genealogy Bloggers Newsworthy?

2007-03-09T15:08:00.000-05:00

After a couple of hours putting together a Genealogy Bloggers Roll (as I couldn't find any existing pages that made it easy to find the blog for a specific person, and I know many of the people, but often cannot remember their blog names), I began to wonder if the views and opinions of these folks are newsworthy? By newsworthy, I mean would people appreciate getting a consolidated recap of the most interesting items of the week.

A while back, Paul Allen's team (as part of his Provo Labs initiative) put together an interesting meta-blog called the Genealogy Blog Planet, which allows you to read the latest news from over 50 different genealogy blogs on one page. This approach uses technology to combine RSS feeds, and while that solves one problem (i.e. not having to visit 50 different blogs), it doesn't add any editorial value because it simply combines the blogs and doesn't filter out the most interesting items.

On our GenWeekly.com web site, we blog about items that we find in newspapers and sent to us as press releases, but we've not mentioned items from other genealogy bloggers. Are blog posts less credible because they aren't reviewed by editors and published in print?

With syndication technology (i.e. RSS aggregators) being adopted so rapidly, perhaps the traditional value added by publishers was overlooked. The news industry has the Associated Press, who pump out hundreds of stories everyday, and most (if not all) news organizations subscribe to their feed. BUT, the various news organizations pick up and use a subset of the articles that they feel would appeal most to their readers. The Internet doesn't have anything comparable for genealogy blogging.

So would it be considered "reporting", if Genealogy Today began highlighting the most interesting blog posts of the week?

Leaving No Stone Unturned

2007-02-07T20:55:00.000-05:00

If you like to watch people, they call you a people-watcher. So, I guess that makes me a google-watcher. I like to reading every news release they put out, and I'm seeing a trend when it comes to advertising.

When the Internet became popular some proclaimed that all other forms of advertising would become obsolete. Well, ten or so years later and Google is poking around in many of those traditional media channels. Now with Internet radio that can be listened to from any computer or streamed down to your cellular phone, is radio advertising going to have a resurgence?

In March 2006, listeners to the classic oldies station WMTR-AM 1250 heard the first Genealogy Today radio commercial [ mp3 ] as I expanded my offline marketing efforts. Months after the ad campaign finished in July, people were still commented how they had heard about my site on the radio.

Now we're in 2007, and with the launch of Family Roots Radio, I see another excellent and very vertical advertising opportunity. Of course, I am biased being responsible for the marketing of the show. But, setting that aside, I'm excited to see how Internet radio performs against the traditional airwaves. Do people listen to Internet stations all day long?

Family Roots Radio is going to be broadcast on Modavox's VoiceAmerica Channel, which has been broadcasting since 1999 and is the largest network of Internet Talk Radio stations. Modavox already knows how to monitor and track listeners, and they will tell us the exact number of impressions delivered to the show. A recent Arbitron report noted that over 50% of Internet users consume streaming media!

As Family Roots Radio launches tomorrow, I'll be running that same ad and it will be interesting to see if it gets a better response. WMTR-AM 1250 also had a stream of their shows, so even though it was a N.J.-based station, the listeners spanned the country.

What's next? Perhaps some video advertising, comparing the power of cable to the phenomenon of YouTube.

A Friendly Game of Tag

2007-01-28T10:43:00.000-05:00

Randy Seavers (Genea-Musings blog) has been promoting a very interesting, almost viral, method for identifying and highlighting genealogy blogs and the people who operate them. Kudos Randy! As I've blogged in the past, one of my pet peeves are anonymous genealogy sites. It's great to see webmasters and blogmasters step up to the challenge and share some facts about themselves.

According to the rules, when you're tagged, you're supposed to blog "Five Things You Didn't Know About Me," and then tag other bloggers.

So, I've been tagged by my good friend, Lorine McGinnis Schulze (Olive Tree Genealogy blog), and am certainly up for the "challenge". It's a challenge to reflect upon oneself and reveal FIVE interesting facts about one's life.

1. I've always loved music, so when I went to college, joining the radio station, WJRH 90.5 FM, was a natural step. After two years of on air experience, and being selected to be the Production Manager, I was offered a job at WQQQ Q100 FM, and became Lloyd London for two years. I considered a career in broadcasting, as a junior I was the college station Programming Director, and as a senior, Station Director.

2. Having grown up without pets (Mom only liked cats, Dad only liked dogs), but loving animals, when I left the nest I couldn't wait to get a pet. The confines of a college dorm room limited my options, but a girlfriend at the time presented me with a hamster we names Daisy. The years of animal denial led me to seek the opposite extreme, so within a few months, my dorm room was overcrowded with a dozen little critters. I have photos somewhere. If I can dig them up, I'll post a photo of Daisy.

3. When I was a junior in high school, the first computer lab was created with TRS-80's. I was interested, but the class was offered only to the freshmen. My physics teacher had two Commodore PET's in his office, so my friend Gordon Accocella and I begged to get access to them -- during physics class, of course. The teacher made us a deal, that if we could maintain an A average in his class, we could sneak back to the PET's, and we would have to participate in every experiment lesson.

4. My wife, Elaine (pictured right), and I attended the same college and were in the same graduating class. We knew of each other by name, but never really crossed paths. During Senior Week, one of my AXP fraternity brothers told me he wanted to go on a date with this girl (Elaine), but she wouldn't go alone. So, he wanted me to come along as a date for her friend. Suffice it to say, the relationship between him and Elaine didn't flourish. Instead I spent every possible minute of that last week on campus with her, and 20 years later we're still together!

5. My genealogy websites started out as an experiment. I was working for a conservative financial company as an IT professional. In 1985, when the Internet started becoming popular, I was given the responsibility of handling my employer's web site. I loved to read trade magazines, and was learning of all these cool things you could add to your site, but felt they weren't appropriate for the company web site. So, I figured I aught to create my own web site and decided to put my family tree online at D'Addezio.com. Being of Italian descent, I wanted to include some information about Italian genealogy, but found the Internet to be too disorganized, which led me to expand the site focusing on the topic. As I tried different techniques and Internet tools/services, the site grew and eventually I launched a separate site that would be handled as a professional company called Genealogy Today. That was in 1999, and five years later I would quit my day job and focus on the site as my full time occupation.

What I love about these five things is that they really contributed to the person I am today. I've learned so much from the diverse experiences of my life, and am truly enjoying my current role as an archivist, preserving our past for genealogists.

I would like to tag Kenneth G. Aitken, whose blog I read regularly. Ken does a really nice job of focusing on the educational aspect of genealogy. I'd also like to tag Paul Allen (the lesser), who we all know as the founder of Ancestry.com. And since Paul is such a prolific blogger and tells so much about himself, it would be interesting to see if he is up to the challenge of sharing FIVE things that we don't already know!

Randy has been keeping a list of the genealogy bloggers who've been tagged and responded.

P. S. Many people have asked about the photo of myself with the dog. It was taken in a professional studio, an experience we've exposed all of our pets to. His name was Maximillian, and he past away in 2003 from a heart tumor at the young age of eight. We have another dog, and I've had a portrait done with him (his name is Moon), but he's just not as interested in what I do in the office all day. Max used to stay at my feet under the desk, and prodded me to take breaks (i.e. so he could go outside and have a break as well). I credit Max with helping prevent me from getting carpal tunnel syndrome during the years when I was doing a lot of typing while creating my sites.

Does Size Matter?

2007-01-15T12:38:00.000-05:00

As part of a large update to the Family Tree Connection database that finished this morning, an 1894 graduation item with just THREE seniors was added. It was for the Fairfield High School in Maine, and the surnames were WARREN, CHASE and HATCH. I love these kinds of items, and there are hundreds of them in the database. First, you have to wonder just how many copies of this little document did they print, and then how many have survived 113 years later!

For the past four years I've been on a quest to gather up as much of our ancestral history as possible with the goal of making these treasures available online for genealogists. I like the term "public collections", as while I am collecting these items, they're being shared.

Of course, the hidden agenda is that I hope to find some neat items like this about my own ancestors. How cool would it be to know that not only did you ancestor graduate, but at the ceremony they read "Hiawatha's Wooing" by Longfellow as one of the students did according to this program.

So, while everyone "oohs and ahhs" when a document with thousands of names gets uploaded, I think the real exciting items are the ones with fewer names, and from more obscure locations.

Do They Know What You're Doing?

2006-12-20T19:25:00.000-05:00

If you run a genealogy web site, you probably (or maybe not) spend most of your time building the business by adding more content, or working on your marketing efforts to drive more traffic to you site. But do you ever ask yourself if the people arriving at your site understand what you're trying to offer them?

Many people (especially earlier this month while I was on a great genealogy tour) ask me what Genealogy Today is all about. And the more often I get asked, the better I get at answering. But, the better I get answering, the more I begin to realize that the Genealogy Today home page wasn't as successful at conveying the same message. [The home page has been improved since I wrote this post]

Often it's the evolutionary process that creates this disparity, so you should expect this to happen if you often engage in a variety of projects -- involving different type of information, or geared towards a slightly different audience.

There are plenty of articles out there on the topic of testing, but they typically measure success based on the number of visitors that complete a specific task. How do you measure whether or not someone understands what you're actually doing after they visit your web site?

Find Yourself a Genealogical Niche

2006-12-06T22:33:00.000-05:00

If you're a small genealogy business owner, stop posting general information like census data or passenger lists on your site, the big companies will always outpace your efforts. And our industry is seeing an increase in the number of medium companies (e.g. WorldVitalRecords.com and GenealogyBank.com) joining in the fray.

Yes, many genealogists are frugal and will often seek a free source for the information they are looking for, but as these medium companies grow and the bigger companies invest more and more in mainstream advertising, will the next generation of genealogists even think to check your site for these commodity items?

Compound this changing climate in our industry with the glut of keyword-happy Google AdSense web sites, and the visibility of a smaller genealogy web site will clearly be on the decline.

One of the solutions is to hone your collecting skills and expertise on smaller, more unique information sources and then become the best online resource.

Another reason I'm looking at this strategy is that the affiliate marketing opportunities available today (versus several years ago) are more focused on new customer acquisition. By specializing in more unique resources, you have the opportunity to reach individuals that may be interested in genealogy but not actively pursuing the hobby.

For example, a couple of months ago I stumbled upon a World War Two ration book in an antique shop. The book had interesting genealogical information on it, so I bought it. When I got back to the office, I did some research and found that there weren't any online repositories of these little books.

Now, as I'm collecting and expanding the WW2 war ration book database index on Genealogy Today, I'm also attracting military enthusiasts and researchers.

And the last marketing incentive for creating a specialized online resource is the ability to establish links from non-genealogy web site. Developing a highly focused page on the topic will get you good search engine placement, thus webmasters will find your page and link to it. How can they resist when you're the only site with an abundance of information on the topic, right?

The remaining question is how many niches can you establish and still have enough resources to be remarkable in each!

Don't Jump.... To Conclusions

2006-12-04T22:31:00.001-05:00

Here's a deep thought, what is the truth when it comes to genealogical information? This evening, I attended a talk by Arlene Eakle (blog) who made an interesting statement. She said that documented information is simply information that has its source defined.

Over the years, many people have cautioned about online information and its validity, and I've blogged about anonymous websites and unsourced information that continue to compound the problem. If your a genealogy webmaster, you owe it to your visitors to explain where your information came from, the original source AND who interpreted it. That's another distinction Alrene made. We often say that information was transcribed, which is appropriate for clearly type documents, but for hand-written documents it really is interpretation.

I've learned this first hand with my ww2 war ration book project. My enthusiam oftens clouds my judgment as I didn'r realize what I was getting myself into with this project. I never imagined running around my house to stare at a little book in different lighting with a magnifying glass to figure out what the surname is. My wife now knows if I approach her and hand out a ration book, it means I'm baffled and need a second opinion.

So, sure people have gotten the message about trusting information, but I wonder how many apply that rule to the less professional looking sites. Do they trust the information found on Ancestry.com as opposed to some of the personal web pages? Shouldn't they trust Ancestry.com?

A point was made in another session I attended today that the census data on Ancestry.com was actually transcribed (and thus intepreted) in countries where English is not the primary language. And thus the people interpreting the handwritten census records are not familiar with Anglican names. Interesting point.

It seems like all genealogy companies be more responsible with the information they publish by clearly stating who was responsible for the interpretation. Not necessarily name the person (for privacy reasons), but stating a first initial, last name, and regional information (country or state).

I'm going to take a closer look at this topic and consider adding this extra piece of information to the databases published at Genealogy Today. It would probably also be interesting to clarify whether the source was typed or hand-written.

Genealogists should ask the webmaster, or the company providing the information, whether the source was handwritten, and if so, who did the interpretation. Don't just assume that because its online that the transcriber did an accurate job. I can now say with experience that dealing with handwritten documents is not an easy prospect.

What's Your Weakest Link?

2006-12-03T06:52:00.000-05:00

Between running your business, worrying about year-end accounting, and doing some planning for the new year, it's a challenge to find the time to stop and look at where you're NOT doing a remarkable job. But, perhaps such an exercise may yield better results in the long-term.

If you take a moment and think about what part of your business doesn't quite run as smoothly as it should, or is there a typical business function that you haven't even addressed. This should be part of your planning for the new year. Do what you do better before you attempt to do more.

So, I asked myself last month, what could I do better? The answer was improve my customer service. What if instead of waiting up to two days to get a response from me, customers could get one in a matter of hours? Sounds like a great plan, but how can a small business afford to provide remarkable service like that?

Enter the Virtual Assistant!

The explosion of the Internet created a whole new industry, giving talented people the opportunity to work for companies remotely. Then International Virtual Assistants Association defines a virtual assistant as, "an independent entrepreneur providing administrative, creative and/or technical services."

There are many VA's out there looking for opportunities to fill up a 40 hour work week. The best part of this arrangement is that you can get what you need (say 5 hours of help a week) without having to foot the cost of hiring a full-time (or even part-time) employee.

Interesting, right? So, rather that try to fix the real problem (i.e. I'm wearing too many hats to provide my customers with prompt responses), bring in some extra help to offset it. When you distill down something like customer service (for a small company), it shouldn't add up to more than a few hours a week. (If it's consuming more than that, perhaps you have a weaker link in your business and need to dig deeper)

Several years ago (when the VA thing was starting), I contacted several VA's (and a few contacted me), but could never get past the mental block of what could this person really do for me that I'm willing to pay for. It's really the exploration of what your weakest at, or what you're not even getting to altogether, that will help identify where to invest in outside help.

Trading or Donating to Create Goodwill

2006-09-30T14:01:00.000-05:00

Do you collect stuff? Have you ever noticed that in the process of collecting one type of item, you end up with a bunch of related stuff? I find that this happens often when I purchase lots off of eBay. I don't have any use for this extra stuff, and yet I cannot bring myself to throw it away.

Then I started thinking that this must happen to other collectors as well, so what if I could find people that are looking for things I've accidentally collection that may have stuff I want. When I was a kid I used to trade my duplicate baseball cards with my friends, why not trade some of these items! We've become so accustomed to buying the things we want that the practice of trading has all but faded away.

Now as I'm buying things, I will often ask the seller, "what do you collect?" and then check my inventory to see if I have any matching items. Then (since the stuff has no value to me) I just mail them the items and suggest a trade. That's right, I send them the stuff without striking a deal in advance. Before you dismiss me as crazy, ask yourself how much effort does it take to get the items you collect and then read on.

Here's an example. I collect funeral cards for Genealogy Today. In the process, I get a bunch of holy cards, some blank, some with prayers. Sometimes I'll buy a mixed lot of say 100 cards, of which 20 are funeral cards. Repeat this several times, and you get a large pile of non-funeral cards sitting in a pile.

Now, I can (and have tried to) sell these on eBay and get a few bucks back. Instead, in the process of asking sellers what they collect, I made a friend who collects holy cards and doesn't know what to do with the funeral cards he gets. Viola! An open-ended mutually beneficial relationship. I mail him any holy cards, he mails me funeral cards.

I do the same with unwanted military items to get WW2 war ration books. And am currently looking for someone who collects railroad items so that I can get more conductor business cards and seniority lists.

This has opened up a whole new acquisition channel which is yielding some fantastic results. So much so, that I'm even bidding on lots at the live auctions that I attend just for the purpose of sending to my trading partners.

Antique Book and Paper Shows

2006-04-29T18:43:00.000-05:00

I'm often asked, "where do you find this stuff?", in regards to some of the information published on Genealogy Today. In addition to the network of book dealers, antique shop owners and estate sale managers that look for items that I collect, I attend regional ephemera and book shows.

These shows are really wild as you get to see vendors who collect all sorts of odd paper items (and even some non-paper items like coins, buttons, badges, etc). Sometimes the vendors travel (long distances) to attend, but most are local to the area. As a result, you're able to find items of local interest, as well as, some from other parts of the country.

Perhaps you're reading this and saying, "why bother, I can get anything I want on eBay". Yes, there is a lot of stuff on eBay, but eBay (while a fantastic site) does have its limitations. For example, you'll only find sellers who own a computer and have the time to post their items online. There are many (many) book and paper dealers out there with huge collections that never appear on eBay.

What's more, these dealers have so much knowledge of the items -- how to find them, what they're worth -- that you just can't get the same kind of interaction on eBay.

Meet Peter Masi. He owns "peter l. masi - books" and this year is celebrating 25 years of bookselling. Peter doesn't have a brink-n-morter store, or an Internet site. He does have an extensive collection of resources, and publishes his own catalogs regularly and mails them to his customers.

What I love about many dealers like Peter, is that they pay close attention to what you're interested in. Duh, that's how they can successfully sell more stuff. So, by attending these regional shows and meeting people like Peter, you can have a bunch of "content agents" out there looking for the items you wish to collect.

If you'd like to get on Peter's mailing list, send him a note: peter l. masi - books, po box B, montague, MA 01351.

Yes, I do purchase many items from eBay, but you should see how full my truck is after attending one of these shows. Just the postage and time savings alone makes it worthwhile.

Striking a Genealogical Balance

2006-03-31T11:14:00.000-05:00

As 2005 came to an end, I thought about possible resolutions for 2006. One of the things that has bothered me lately are the emails I get complaining that Genealogy Today is just another paid site.

It always strikes me as odd, when the site (launched in 1999) didn’t have any subscription databases until the end of 2003. But when visitors voice their impressions, I do listen.

While I am not a Buddhist, I do put a lot of creedence into the philosophy that everything should be in balance. I follow this in my personal life all the time through the holistic therapies and remedies I use for any ailments. So, why shouldn’t I apply it to my business.It made me think back to June 2000, when MyFamily.com acquired RootsWeb. The announcement said, “the acquisition will provide the RootsWeb.com site the financial backing to expand its focus on preserving, sharing, and exchanging family history research. The RootsWeb.com site will expand with additional technology tools, increased family research content and a greater range of genealogical resources.” Did RootsWeb really need to be supported? Or were there higher powers at work trying to put MyFamily back into balance?

Well, this was unlikely a holistic action to balance their growing collection of subscription information, but it did give me the idea for my resolution. Well, at first, it just made me wonder what the ratio of subscription versus free data was.

I’d always had plenty of free content, both organic and through acquisitions, but never thought to monitor the quantity of free versus paid names. So, I added a feature to an administrative page that I have to show me the exact counts of all paid a free databases. And, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the site was not too far out of balance at 56% paid.

So, since then I have been resolved to getting (and maintaining) the site’s data collection at a more exact balancing point. And I am pleased to share that since February this goal has been achieved and the ratio has stayed at 50% (+/- 0.75%) ever since.

Whether it’s the free vs. paid issue, or original content vs. affiliate links, you should always try to maintain a reasonable balance. Have you looked at your own site lately? How balanced is it?

Did You See What I Published Today?

2006-03-26T12:52:00.000-05:00

I read an interesting blog post today on a Geek Blog by Phil Burns. He said his company instituted the following doctrine for it’s employees: “If the customer didn’t see it, you didn’t do it.” What a great creed for publishers (webmasters and bloggers ARE publishers, by the way).

For a long time I have given myself the goal of posting something of value to genealogists every weekday on Genealogy Today. But reading this doctrine made me wonder if those countless efforts had ever been seen by anybody, and thus according to Phil, had I actually done them?

I have no way of measuring my net accomplishments, but I can share with you the steps I took to make sure that, at a minimum, the things that I published could be seen.

Did I put appropriate keywords in the META tag?

Does it appear in the site search?

Can I find it on my site map?

Does it deserve a home page link?

Is it newsworthy? (then it goes on my news page)

Is it pressworthy? (then I write a press release)

Is it buzzworthy? (then I’ll post it to some lists)

Is it linkworthy? (then I’ll message a few webmasters)

Should I add it to my site history page?

Did I mention it in my weekly newsletter?

Should I blog about it on my corporate blog?

That’s right, I go through this list at the end of every day to make sure that whatever I’ve published can be found by my visitors. (#11 is a new addition to the list)

In looking at this list, however, I noticed that I don’t have a “what’s new” page. I’d like to get some comments on whether or not genealogists find “what’s new” pages useful when visiting sites.

Being a Smart Affiliate Partner

2006-03-22T12:46:00.000-05:00

In the online world there are several ways to generate revenue; you can sell things, you can seek paid advertising or you can join an affiliate program and earn money for referrals.

When you sell things, you are always thinking of better ways to present your products or services. You try different ways to draw in visitors and analyze your page layout to make sure the purchase process is simple and efficient (otherwise visitors won’t make it all the way through).

When you add banner or text advertising to your pages, you usually plop them in the highest trafficked and/or visible places. Since most webmasters settle for CPM advertising relationships, impression volume is all that matters.

So, why do many affiliates treat affiliate relationships like advertising? Yes, it is true that with any affiliate program, shear volume should yield sales. But, why waste all that traffic?

As an affiliate partner, you’re an extension of the partner company’s sales and marketing department. You’re effectively selling (or pre-selling) their products or services.

While you still want to focus some attention on placing creative that yields a solid clickthru rate, you also should consider whether the landing page for each creative produces the best sales per click.

The partner may offer two search boxes that have comparable clickthru rates, but one may yield more sales. Commission Junction offers EPC (Average Earnings Per One Hundred Clicks) calculations with all the creative. This is a helpful calculation for comparing similar creative.

Remember, however, that all web pages are not alike, and so the program-wide statistics you see may be distorted. For example, a US Census creative might show a high EPC, but there may be sites in the program that are census-oriented and draw in traffic looking for census data. These kind of sites will probably achieve a higher EPC for a census creative than your site if it is less focus on the topic.

My own web site, Genealogy Today, is a pretty generic site and with a specialized piece of creative like a US Census banner I would never see the EPC that say a census-centric site like Census-Online.com would. So, pick creative that best matches the needs of your own unique visitors.

That’s not to say that you should avoid creative that doesn’t match your site’s focus. It’s always good to have some in the mix as your visitors may actually check our you site and not find what they’re looking for. Just recognize the performance of these creatives may not match the EPC listed.

One of the most important factors in selling things on a site is to make sure you clearly state what the product or service offers. For products, it’s key to layout all of the attributes down to size, weight and a clear, readable picture is essential. For services, it’s important to spell out the terms, benefits and any deliverables.

You’re pre-selling a partner company’s product or service, so you should do some of the same things you would if you were selling it yourself. Look at the creative you’re using and ask yourself if the visitors know what they’re getting when they click on it.

Think about your own objective. You want visitors to click on the creative and do something — preferably make a purchase. You can send blindly send 1,000 visitors and hope to make a few sales. Or, you can selectively send fewer, more qualified visitors.

A “red flag” goes up in my head whenever I look at a performance report and I see clicks increase without a relative increase in sales. That red flag usually indicates that I’m not doing my job in pre-selling. (Yes, it could also mean the affiliate partner landing page is lame, but I rarely can control that. It could also be that the partner changed the landing page)

I find the following tactics to be the most effective at whittling away unproductive clicks:

Make sure partner company name is clearly displayed,

Make sure it is clear MONEY is involved (nothing is free),

Provide an alternative, more direct click.

Let me explain #3. Visitors like options. Many like shortcuts. Say, for example, you’re displaying a search box that (after clicking) shows the visitor some results and asks them to signup. The “action” button may be somewhere on the page that the affiliate partner feels is the best place, and you’re not likely to change it. So, give your visitors a shortcut before they get there and lose interest.

There’s one last suggestion I want to make, and its one I am just beginning to explore. There’s a feature on Google that I’ve rarely used, but I now see the relevance and think it could be applied to affiliate marketing.

I’ve often thought about the situation where I’m promoting an affiliate (let’s call it “A”) and the visitor is already an “A” customer. They either pass by the creative, or generate an unproductive click. My thought is why not offer something akin to Google’s “Similar pages” feature. This way, if the visitor already knows what “A” offers, you can share with them related sites (that are also affiliate partners).

So, to do a quick recap:

Monitor clickthru rates. Replace low-clickthru creative placed in high traffic areas.

Compare EPC values of similar creative.

Match creative to your own visitors, but mix in some unrelated stuff also.

Make sure partner identity is clear on creative, or add it yourself with text or modify graphic (if program rules allow).

Clearly show where $$$ are involved.

Provide shortcuts to action pages.

Try offering related alternatives.

There are plenty of “tricks” and slightly-deceptive ways to drive clicks to affiliates, but if you give me 1,000 visitors, I’d rather send each of them to a place where they are most likely going to act, rather than rely on “chance” that some of them will.