TheFHGuide.com Goes Live! Help is Here!

July 27, 2015

New Family History Website Released – The Family History Guide

www.thefhguide.com - Overview

SANDY, Utah - July 25, 2015 - Even with the renewed focus and attention placed on family history these days, the fact remains that fewer than 10% of the population - LDS or non-LDS - is actively involved in it. Reasons for not taking the family history plunge are plentiful (and often convincing), but the benefits of being involved are real and tangible, as avid genealogists can attest.

The Family History Guide - a unique, new website free to the public that officially launches today - aims to change the equation by drawing more of the 90% into family history. "We want to get people into the game and help them stay in the game," said Bob Taylor, founder and CEO of The Family History Guide, LLC. "We've developed a simple yet powerful learning system that provides a comfortable harbor in the ocean that can be family history."

People of all backgrounds and skill levels can quickly find the tools and resources they need in The Family History Guide. The innovative design contains a series of Goals, Choices and Steps that lead the learner through the family history experience, in Projects such as Family Tree, Memories, Descendants, Ordinances, Discover (Research), Indexing, Help, and Technology. There are links to over 1,000 videos and articles, all integrated into a smooth instructional sequence that gives learners flexibility and control over their learning paths. The Family History Guide also draws on the resources and strengths of FamilySearch, Ancestry, FindMyPast, MyHeritage, and other sites. "As family history evolves on the web, we'll be right there," continued Taylor. "We point people to the best tools and technologies for family history and research, all within a comfortable framework."

The Family History Guide is also proving to be a powerful tool for classroom instruction. "We've been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of our early test sites," said Taylor. "Many Family History Consultants have latched onto the site, excited for how it accelerates learning. Even those who were previously reluctant to help patrons are stepping up with more confidence."

The Family History Guide is available at www.thefhguide.com and in the FamilySearch App Gallery at https://familysearch.org/apps.  For more information, contact thefhguide@gmail.com

UVTAGG mtg -11 July 2015

The next meeting of the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group - UVTAGG will be on Saturday, 11 July 2015, from 9 am to noon in the LDS "Red Chapel", 4050 North Timpview Drive (650 East), Provo. This is the regular second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting. Information about the Group, meeting location, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on their website  http://uvtagg.org.

The main presentation this month at UVTAGG will be by James Tanner on COPYRIGHT LAW FOR GENEALOGISTS. Family historians are constantly confronted with issues involving copyright protected books, documents and other items. For example, how many researchers have found an important family story only to realize that the story is subject to a copyright claim? In addition, we are frequently confronted with the issue that a document or photograph pertaining to our family is also subject to a copyright claim and what if we want copyright protection for our own work? In many cases, understanding the basics of United States copyright law, or the law of other countries, becomes of more than academic interest. 

In this  presentation former attorney James L. Tanner will provide an essential look at modern copyright law as it applies to genealogical research. The presentation and accompanying handout will cover important topics such as the concepts of fair use and what is and is not in the public domain. Tanner will also discuss some of the rulings in current important copyright litigation. James L. Tanner received a B.A. Degree in Spanish, an M.A. Degree in Linguistics, University of Utah, and a J.D. Degree, Law, Arizona State University. He spent two years as an Intelligence Analyst for the U.S. Army, 39 years as an Arizona trial attorney, over 33 years in genealogical research, and is an Avid Blogger of Genealogy’s Star blog and Rejoice, and be exceeding glad. He has also spent ten years as a family history missionary at the Mesa, Arizona FamilySearch Library and is presently serving at the BYU Family History Library. He is a presenter at conferences and expos around the U.S. and Canada. He was previously the owner of a retail computer business and an Apple Macintosh software company, as well as being a professional photographer. He and his wife have seven children and 32 grandchildren.

After the main presentation the following classes are scheduled.  See our website for last minute changes and additions.

(1)  Q&A: Copyright Law for Genealogists, by James Tanner 

(2)  Using the Family History Guide to Jump Start Your Genealogy, by Bob Taylor.  This is a new website that is available to help you negotiate the family history learning process. It's great for beginners and more advanced genealogists. It is especially helpful to family history consultants in helping others learn more!

(3)  It's About Time (Calendars), by Ginny Ackerson 

(4)  Ask An Expert (Personal Help), by Don Engstrom & Finn Hansen 

(5)  Video of last month's main presentation: Finding the Living Among the Dead - Using the Internet, by Amy Archibald 

(6)  Ancestral Quest, by Gaylon Findlay 

(7)  RootsMagic, by Diana Olsen

Notice that there is something for everyone no matter what their level of family history expertise. This includes youth, those just getting interested in genealogy, long-time genealogists, and ward family history consultants. All meetings of UVTAGG are open to the public, whether members of the Group or not. The Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually about 100 attending the monthly meetings, most of whom are family history consultants. 

The Family History Guide - A New Genealogy Tool

We all have family or friends that want to learn about their family history. There is so much great information on the web to help, however, until one becomes a bit more experienced it's hard to even know where to begin!

So your help is needed to test a new Family History Guide. It's meant to get you started and to guide you along the way to becoming more proficient and comfortable with the process. We know there are things that still need tweeking and we are rapidly adding new information every day. You are the best to tell us if it flows smoothly or if there are things that could be done better!

I've been helping a couple of friends who just want to help others become more comfortable in learning and confident in their efforts. This web tool can help those family and friends become more self-sufficient and learn to enjoy the process. Besides, they can do this at their own speed!

A facebook page for the Guide is located here along with some instructions:                   https://www.facebook.com/TheFamilyHistoryGuide.

The website is located here:  http://www.thefhguide.com/. The website has a tracker sheet that can help you keep track of what you cover in the site.

Please share this with your friends and family and give it a try. You can add your feedback to the facebook page or post comments in the blog under "Contact Us".

Thanks so much and Enjoy!

Is this a WIN-WIN? Findmypast acquires Mocavo

Yesterday, two major players in the genealogy community announced that Mocavo was being acquired by Findmypast.  You can read the fine details here Findmypast announcement and Mocavo announcement.

It’s always a guessing game when two major players in the genealogy community join forces, one acquiring another, or merging to become one. I find myself second-guessing the motives and where the win-win might be in the transaction.  So here is my take ...

Mocavo.com, a privately held internet company based in Colorado, first launched in March of 2011 as an index to all free online genealogy information. It searches the National Archives, Library of Congress, FreeBMD, Find A Grave, Rootsweb, Archives.org and many others, including many U.S. state archives, message boards, family trees, and the many genealogy web sites built by you and me. It finds many records that you could find individually by searching each and every site, but it does it in one search from their site. In just the past couple of years, Mocavo.com has added their own acquired records including millions of pages of yearbooks. They also have a paid version that has added benefits. Later in 2011 they launched Mocavo.co.uk, expanding beyond the U.S. 

The following year Mocavo acquired ReadyMicro, a company that specializes in digitization and preservation services. So Mocavo was already beginning to expand their business model to include acquired records and become more than a genealogy search engine. 

Cliff Shaw, the original founder of Mocavo, is the technical brain. Among the various backers behind Mocavo is our own fellow genealogist, Michael J. Leclerc who is a former director at the New England Historic Genealogical Society and a former board member of APG and many other positions. He added the genealogical brains to Mocavo a year later in 2012. 

Cliff Shaw was also the founder of GenForum that was later sold to The Learning Company/A&E Television Networks; founder of Pearl Street Software that was sold to MyHeritage; founder of ProtectMyPhotos which eventually became PicStreem and then BackupMyTree.com (an automatic backup service for family trees). BackupMyTree was acquired by MyHeritage in 2012. MyHeritage is now well known for its Smart Matching search techniques.

Are you seeing a pattern here?

Findmypast has been around since 1965 in various forms, beginning as a small group of professional and probate genealogists.  It is a privately held online genealogy service owned by a UK company, DC Thomson Family History (previously known as brightsolid). Back in 2003 the website was known as “1837online” which was a pay-per-view service that allowed access to BDM registers from the General Register Office (GRO) in England. Gradually they added many records including the UK censuses. 

In 2009/10, Brightsolid acquired both Genes Reunited (British newspapers) and its sister company, Friends Reunited (social network), both UK companies. In 2012, they created a partnership with the British Library to publish 100 years of the UK electoral registers. They have since partnered with FamilySearch, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Society of Genealogists, and the UK National Archives. 

And another of our brilliant genealogists, D. Joshua Taylor joined Findmypast as Business Development Manager and is now the Data Strategy Manager – North America and the lead genealogist. He also is a former director at the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) and was a featured genealogist on “Who Do You Think You Are”. He currently serves as the President for the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS).

See more connections and patterns?

Interestingly, Findmypast has had its fair share of controversy recently after changing their website interface and subscribers voicing their difficulty with the search engine.  Plenty of complaints were made directly to the company and throughout the genealogical community. The company shared in the news media, just two months ago, that they would “listen to customers’ feedback and make the necessary improvements as quickly as possible”. 

Findmypast has been suffering from the same out-of-date technology issues that Ancestry faced with their switch to the “new search” and dropping “old search”, and even FamilySearch has been dealing with the changes from newFamilySearch to the current FamilySearch. Old technology is something we all have to deal with, whether it’s with a company we do business with, a software package we purchase or use (think PAF being discontinued), or even the vehicle we drive (don't you just wish you still had that old clunker you loved so much?). Technology changes faster than most other areas of our lives and is a very costly and difficult part of any business. It required CHANGE and ADAPTATION on our part, as well.

So, looking at the latest announcement from Findmypast and Mocavo, and all the above details, this acquisition makes perfect sense to me. There are some heavy hitters with significant technical and genealogical knowledge finding ways to join forces, blending their various expertise to make their businesses stronger and provide us, as users, additional and better products. Besides that, I see some of the successful entrepreneurs in this industry who have terrific ideas that become very successful. After they grow it to the best it can be, they sell it off to another company who has the need giving the seller the capital to either move on or further enhance their product. I see the perfect WIN-WIN for everyone. So I’m excited for this change and look forward to both Findmypast and Mocavo becoming better than they were yesterday! Mocavo needs capital and Fndmypast needs better search capability. The two companies can remain somewhat independent but share in the knowledge each offers. 

Think Findmypast, MyHeritage and FamilySearch partnerships! Also, a terrific WIN-WIN!

Get Kids Involved in Family History - MY STORY app

Attention, Parents, Teachers, Grandparents, Family Historians! I'm always looking for tools to help with family history and find ways to get children involved in the process. Today I found an iPad app called MY STORY - BOOK MAKER FOR KIDS that looks pretty great. Every day I check the app "Apps Gone Free" and for today only, this app is free. 

Right after installing the app there is a button for "grown-ups" that allows grown-ups, like teachers, to register for a free Bright Bot account to be able to synchronize a classroom, authors (the kids), and their stories. When I went to that site today it lets me register and be notified when the site is ready to go, but it's not available right now.

I created an author by adding a name and a single click of a button adds a Book.  I can add pictures from my camera roll, take a picture with my built-in camera, write and draw pictures free hand or add text from the keyboard, change my text color, tool size and erase mistakes with the eraser tool. There are digital stickers to enhance pages. I can add as many pages as I want, add titles to each page and add audio clips using the iPad's microphone. 

This is a great tool for children to tell stories about themselves, their activities, family members or friends. These books can be shared via email, twitter, facebook, or open in iBooks on the iPad or iPhone or, on any device that opens epub files. The only think I didn't find that would be helpful is an "undo" feature. If you make a mistake you can erase it, but not undo it.

This is a simple tool that that I think my younger granddaughters will love. And as a grandma - I'd love to get a "book" for Christmas! What a fun keepsake. 

Disclaimer: I don't have any affiliation with this app or its author. I just saw it, liked it, and thought you might, too. By the way, the regular price of this app is $3.99, so it's not a bad deal even if you miss the free deal today!