Wisdom Wednesday: Where did they put that?

Oh gosh! Either I'm getting old and the mind is going or stuff is changing too fast! Maybe a bit of both:) Because it's Wednesday, I'll try to keep track of it all and use the GeneaBlogger's blogging prompt called Wisdom Wednesdays.

FamilySearch: Oh no you didn't! Just when I thought that I was finally getting the hang of finding my way into the FamilySearch site in an orderly and useful manner, they went and moved it all around again! Much blogging has been done about what it all means and how to now make your way in to find what you're looking for. Here's what Randy Seaver wrote on Genea-Musings, and you might want to bookmark this as a guide. He quoted Dear Myrtle on the subject: "In this day and age, bookmarks on a specific computer should not be the mainstay for Internet researchers." I missed that post from Ol' Myrt but as usual she hits it on the head!
I understand from fellow bloggers more in the know that I that FamilySearch feels that just 11% of their users are dedicated genealogy and family history buffs. The rest are casual visitors. Really? I do find that difficult to comprehend. Do they mean the population of unique visitors? Maybe I could understand that and they are thinking in terms of being similar to Ancestry.com with lots of people who come and go, but mostly eventually go. But what about page loads and time spent on that site? (I could possibly account for a tenth of all their measured user time on that site because some days I feel like I'm just "parked" there all day long.) Really, FamilySearch? Really?
Keep Randy's Genea-Musings on your favorites. I know that he'll lead us through.

New-To-Me Cousin, Rich, who knows what he's doing! I just love meeting new cousins on the ol' internet thingy! Well, Mom met him first way back when, because they both have been doing this for years, or should that be decades? I like Rich because he's easy to communicate with and is willing to share. Cousin Rich is going to visit Mom this week. As you might remember, Mom is 94 and still working on her Big Tree. Rich and she have been emailing for about 10 years and they've never met, as happens in this crazy game.
Do you also run into new-to-you cousins who just want a copy of a document or to pick your brain and then disappear in the night? Hello, you there cousin? No reply or just a short email back saying they aren't working on that anymore. (Yeah, but I am!)
Must say that I've run into a couple of really lovely cousins lately and that feels super good! I just love "community"! Guys like Cousin Rich make it all worth it:)

GEDmatch! Where art thou? Just when I started loving the heck out of GEDmatch, they crashed and burned. But late yesterday they got back up. I was sitting here with two ID numbers in hand that I needed to compare chromosomes with and a juicy GEDCOM waiting to be uploaded and no way to get to the goodies. But now it sure looks like they are making a come back, and with a newly designed layout and sign-in feature too. It took me a moment to realize the GEDCOM upload feature wasn't yet functional, and another little minute to locate the old features I had been using. Never mind, they'll get there.

Haplogroup H: New Info! Where did we come from, ask the folks on the Haplogroup H3 message board where so many have Irish ancestors! A new article which you can find here reveals a lot about we Hap H people.
"Says Dr Brotherton, "This is a very interesting group as they have been linked to the expansion of Celtic languages along the Atlantic coast and into central Europe."
So Ireland it is:)

This has been such a crazy busy week... and it's only Wednesday!

Wills Creek Bridge near Cumberland, MD.

Photo by Curtis, about 1910.

(See tab at top, Nat'l Highway, to view full album.)

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/04/wisdom-wednesday-where-did-they-put-that.html

Wisdom Wednesday: Faster, Please

Some days it seems like I don't know a blasted thing. Then other days the knowledge comes at me like a freight train and it's all I can do to keep alert. It's Wednesday again and I'm using GeneaBlogger's blogging prompt called Wisdom Wednesdays so that I'm sure to take time and evaluate how this beginning intermediate genealogist is doing. If I don't do this the learning will likely be willy-nilly and random so this feels like it keeps me focused, more or less.

Have to confess that I kinda like the knowledge coming at me fast. Keeps me moving along and on my toes. But here's the thing: I'll be working on a project, like the Biggerstaffs right now, and then my DNA results come back from 23andMe and I am on the freight train again. But that's a good thing, right? Here's what's been happening this last week, in no particular order.

OMG! DNA! My results came back from 23and Me. So much information and I want to devour it all at once. Must resist. Am using some measure of self-control and taking it one feature at a time. Have explored the "DNA Relatives" tool, which you can read about here. And before that checked out the "Countries of Origins Tool" and you can read about that here. Getting results back is an information 18-wheeler, but if you just chunk it down there's no reason to be overloaded. It's all right there and the learning tools are easily accessible so that you can explore and learn as you go. See a new report? Look, the tutorial link is there on that same page. This morning I've received the first reply from my DNA matches and will be getting back to her immediately so that we can compare ancestors. Will use Mom's Big Tree on Ancestry to do this. Handy to have it there:)

Cousin Bait Blog. At the beginning of the year set out a goal and crafted a strategy (sort of) to build in more cousin bait and you can see that popular post here. One of the best things I did was start doing a Surname Saturday post. Not only does it give me an opportunity to review our research, see holes, and take a close look at theories, it's the perfect cousin bait! Something is working because a Whetstone cousin contacted me last week and we immediately got on to discussing the biggest "argument" about the Whetstones. It was so much fun!! Cousin bait is working:)

Am reading Oh, Beautiful, a wonderful book by John Paul Goedes. Can't put it down. It flows from page to page, story to story, family to family. I've read a couple of family history narrative books before and I get into them and eventually find myself thinking, "I really should finish reading this." Not with this book! Each evening I can't wait to read the next section and stay up way too long doing so.

Got thinking about cemeteries and tombstones because of the first chapter of Oh, Beautiful. Part of the beginning is set in a remote mountain village in Italy where the people all live close together and are closely connected. When someone died and was buried all felt that they could go "visit" that person at the graveside, discuss issues of the day and review problems. So they were gone, but still connected. We've, many of us, lost that. Cemeteries for the general population are often the setting of spooky Halloween movies. I like it when an insight like that comes up unexpectedly in something I'm reading.

Looking forward to participating in RootsTech online this week. The Armchair Genealogist, who gets a big e-hug from me for the Family History Writing Challenge and a lot of other stuff, has a brilliant post about how to participate online which you can see here. I think that having your conference open to those who can't be there for whatever reason is exceedingly expansive and generous of spirit and is in the vein of all that is wonderful about the greater sharing posture and good will of the genealogy community, and why so may people are drawn to it. My Mom is 94 and she can't be there but she is online and can participate. I can't be there this year but I want to enjoy and benefit from it as I can, and I'll be watching online too. So thanks and an e-hug to RootsTech. Have a wonderful conference and I'll be watching the sessions as well as looking for blog posts from all the bloggers in attendance!!


Photo of the Day from the Archive:

Dad's Sisters: Chris, Helen, and Louise about 1989.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/03/wisdom-wednesday-faster-please.html

Cousin Bait Strategy Needed

I use this blog for a couple of reasons. Mostly it's to hear myself "talk" -- and see the error of my ways, of which there are plenty -- and get feedback from you, dear generous reader. The other way I use it is to catch a cousin. I get about one every couple of months and I've been happy with that rate of return. But I think it can be better.

When lost or unknown to me cousins contact me it's a trip! We furiously compare trees, exchange packets of info in the mail, and email a bunch of photos to share. It's some serious genealogy fun! Being a fun junkie I want more: that's what junkies do;) So I want to build better bait so as to attract more cousins.

My Grandpa Williams, Mom's dad, was a fisherman who made his own hand-tied flies. You have to think like a fish, he said. So let me try to think like a cousin and see what I come up with.

Searchability.
How can I increase searchability so that when my cousin googles grandpa Camey Williams, the fisherman, they are going to find me? Right now I'm using those labels Blogger provides and includes below the blog post... and I have to remember to use as many as appropriate and Blogger allows so that they get picked up by the search engines.
I wonder if google will pick up grandpa if I just put his info here in the text: Cambria Williams (1897 - 1960)? And then what happens if I add a hyperlink in a new window to Mom's Ancestry page for him? Does that help catch a cousin? Do more links out get me higher on the search results page? Gosh if you know please won't you post a comment?
And do I remember something about Alt tags being useful if you know how to use them? I just for the first time used the Alt tag on the photos below. Maybe I should have been doing that all along.
Anything else I'm missing here to improve searchability?

Photos.
Maybe it's just me, but I love photos. Could have jumped right through the screen and hugged that distant cousin who posted a photo of my great great grandmother, Mary Myers (1837 - 1909) on facebook. Here it is below. She was the granddaughter of my Revolutionary War ancestor, Nehemiah Newans (1740 - 1820) whom you can find on Mom's Big Tree on Ancestry at: http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/18168528/person/19373593834

Mary Myers 1837-1909

Place names.
My ancestors came from such specific places that I think maybe I could be using those too to catch a cousin. Places like Frostburg, Maryland, a town of just 8,000 people in 2000, and Magnolia, West Virginia, now gone entirely. You wouldn't be searching Magnolia unless you have an ancestor who lived there, and if so there's maybe a one out of two chance we're related.
Here's a link to those two places on Wikipedia, and I'm going to use a hyperlink as well as a regular link in the text:
Frostburg : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frostburg,_Maryland
Magnolia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia,_West_Virginia
Do you think this will help with the cousins?

Lists of names and dates... ?
I see Randy Seaver's beautiful blog, Genea-Musings and his posts, Surname Saturday. Here's a sample: http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/12/surname-saturday-clark-england-to.html
Now, my first take on it is that it looks like a whole lotta work! And the second thought is that it looks like perfect cousin bait;) Maybe I need more of that, useful to myself and others and cousin bait crafted to attract.

Trees online.
I do get a couple of messages a week in response to Mom's Big Tree on Ancestry. But that has nothing to do with the blog and I'm wondering if it need be connected in some way or other or does it matter? Maybe they are two different vehicles entirely.

Prominent contact information at the top of the blog.
So if I catch a cousin on a search then it needs to be easy for them to contact me, right? I'm gonna go check my blog right now.... Yup, it's there, but I could repeat it a couple of more times in the page layout so it's easier to find.

OK, that's all I can think of. You have any ideas? I just love it when cousins email!


Photo of the day from the Archive:


 

My Grandfather, Cambria Williams (1897 - 1960)

The best fisherman I ever knew.
Look at the size of that rainbow trout!

 

After I wrote this post I thought, hey, maybe I should google "cousin bait" and see what pops up... after I wrote this, d'uh. Here's what sharper tacks than I had to say.

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings:

http://www.geneamusings.com/2010/06/what-is-best-place-to-leave-cousin-bait.html

Amy Coffin at The We Tree:

http://wetree.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-to-write-cousin-bait-genealogy-blog.html

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Deb Ruth at Adventures in Genealogy:
http://deb-adventuresingenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/11/genealogy-blogging-is-cousin-bait.html

There are more so if you're interested go run the search for yourself. I likes these, above.

Full Screen

Rota

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/01/cousin-bait-strategy-needed.html