About twenty years ago, I gave a lecture about internet genealogy. Internet was in its infancy. I could answer the question "Do you think archives will ever put everything online?" with a negative. The hundreds of miles of archives would be too extensive to digitize. I also figured that repositories would be hesitant to give up their monopoly on records access. Thankfully, I was wrong. That is not to say that everything is available online, far from it. But we have made great strides and … [Read more...]
Column – Safe?
10 July 2015 by 1 Comment
"My family tree is safe, I use Dropbox." Such cloud solutions, that automatically stores files online, are popular among genealogists. You don't have to remember to make a copy and can access the files from all your computers, tablets and phones. Your files are safe. Are they? Ensuring future accessibility of your files requires two things: the file must be available, and you must be able to open it. One problem with cloud solutions like Dropbox is that they do not make a back-up … [Read more...]
Column – The right to be forgotten
13 March 2015 by 1 Comment
A new European guideline ensures that citizens have the right to be forgotten. They can ask search engines to remove results that are no longer relevant. That will prevent your drunk selfie from appearing on the first page of search results the next time a potential employer searches for your name. The guideline is primarily aimed at search engines, but wider regulation is in the works. As genealogists, we're used to personal information becoming public after enough time passes, even if the … [Read more...]
Column – DNA tools
9 January 2015 by 6 Comments
Two years ago, I took my first genealogical DNA-test. Thankfully, the results weren't too surprising, but definitely interesting. Grandpa, who was born three months after his parents' marriage, was indeed the son of his father because I share DNA with multiple relatives on that side. My friend Mary, whom I knew to be related on my father's side, also turned out to share DNA with my mother. This find may enable us to trace the father of an illegitimate ancestor. Before I tested, I would never … [Read more...]
Column – portals
10 October 2014 by Leave a Comment
Portals are websites that provide a single point of access to content of different suppliers. Often, search results in a portal will lead you to the pages of the participating organizations but often you don't even realize that the data is aggregated from different sources behind the scenes. In the world of archives, portals are pretty popular. Some are thematic, like the Netwerk Oorlogsbronnen [War Resources Network], while others aim at presenting all content of a geographic area. Archives … [Read more...]
Column: One tree
25 July 2014 by 1 Comment
Familysearch allows you to collaborate on an integrated family tree that joins everyone, like a Wikipedia for deceased persons. The idea is that genealogists can reach consensus about people: about the dates and places of events, but more importantly about relationships between people. Users can cite or upload sources to support their conclusions. At first, I was enthusiastic. It seemed wonderful to collaborate on interesting puzzles with several genealogists, based on sources we would all … [Read more...]
Column: (Re)searcher
20 June 2014 by 1 Comment
When you've been going genealogy for many years, there are some brick walls that you've just about given up on because you've spent so many fruitless hours tearing them down. But it can be useful to re-evaluate them periodically. Not only will there be new sources available online, but your own skills will have grown too. … [Read more...]
Column: Genealogy police
6 June 2014 by 3 Comments
To me, one of the best aspects of the internet is that it gives everybody a channel to publish whatever they want. No editors that tell you what you can or cannot do, everybody is their own publisher. This has resulted in a wide range of publications, ranging from copy-paste jobs without citations to well-researched works that would not be out of place in a peer-reviewed journal. Due to software that automatically detects 'matches' in other trees and allow you to add these persons to your own … [Read more...]
Column: Best find
4 May 2014 by 3 Comments
When you are at a birthday party and tell people you are into genealogy, the first question you often get is "How far back were you able to go?" If they haven't lost all interest after hearing your stories about tracing some lines to the Middle Ages and getting stuck on some illegitimate children in the 19th century on other lines, a second question sometimes follows: "What is your best find?" … [Read more...]
Column – Thought process
21 March 2014 by Leave a Comment
Shortly after I started doing genealogy, a fellow researcher urged me to always document my sources. "You think now that you will remember where you've found everything, but there comes a time that you will have gathered so much that you won't remember the source." Wise words that I took to heart and that have proved to be invaluable. … [Read more...]
