Create A Free Genealogy Website Part 2: Add & Hide Your Email Address

Part 2 of Rede's series on making a genealogy website, here he helps keep your email address safe from spam bots.

Rede:
In this video I show you how to get, add, and hide your email address to keep the spam bots from finding it.

I recommend you get a separate email account from your own & use an instant messaging program to check & see if you have any new emails.

Links:
Gmail http://mail.google.com/
Hotmail http://hotmail.com/
Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com/
Pidgin http://pidgin.im/
ReCaptcha http://www.google.com/recaptcha

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Rede has licensed this work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

Create A Free Genealogy Website Part 1: Using DropBox To Make A Website

It was nice when I first started there was so many people sharing their genealogy on their own website. Rede is making a series of videos on how a person can make thier own website for free.

Rede:
It has been my experience that more people will contact on my own personal website than any other genealogy website. In this video I show you how to use DropBox as a place to put up your own free genealogy website. I don’t know if or how well the search engines index DropBox but it will give you a chance to experiment & share your genealogy.

Also in this video I mentioned a video on how to backup your genealogy file, I will list it below. He uses RootsMagic but any genealogy program will work the same.

Links:
The Quick and Easy Way to Share an HTML File on the Web
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/05/the-quick-and-easy-way-to-share-an-html-file-on-the-web.html

Store Your RootsMagic Backups Off Site with DropBox
http://genealogytools.com/store-your-rootsmagic-backups-off-site-with-dropbox/

DropBox
https://www.dropbox.com/

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Rede has licensed this work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

Plotting Land With Google Earth

For me land records are fun & useful when researching your ancestors.

In this video Rede shows you how to use Google Earth, Earth Point, and FS Capture to find and plot land with Google Earth.

Links used in this video:

• Google Earth http://earth.google.com/
• Earth Point http://www.earthpoint.us/Townships.aspx
• Portable FS Capture http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=775

Reference links:

• Federal Land Patents http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/
• (Video) Searching Land Patents Part 1 http://genealogyscrounge.blip.tv/file/506725/
• (Video) Searching Land Patents Part 3 http://genealogyscrounge.blip.tv/file/506740/

Free Screen Capture Utility

In this video Rede shows you how to use a free portable screen capture utility & your “Prt Sc” key on your keyboard.

I have found this very useful if you need to print or save what is showing on your monitor. I have found some websites that don’t allow printing or saving, with this method I have been able to work around this. I have also used this method when I need screen shots for presentations.

The disadvantage is if you can’t read it on your monitor, you won’t be able to read it when you print or save the image.

Software can be downloaded from Portable Freeware:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=775

Free Rede Videos

Rede has organized some of his videos into 2 CDs & they can be downloaded for free. They work like a website but can be run on your computer, your memory stick or burned to CDs. No internet required to play them, just an internet browser & flash 9 or higher, which is probably already installed on your computer. Just extract (unzip) the “ZIP” file, open “Index.html” and your on your way.

Free Internet Research
(free_genealogy_research.zip 522MB)
http://bit.ly/b8NJUC

• Get The Story: Examples on how to make a story from your sources.
• Online Family Trees: How to use other’s information.
• Online Book: How to use free online books
• Census: How to search HeritageQuest censuses, but the technique works on other sites.
• Newspapers: How to search free online newspapers.
• Land: How to find locations & land records, and plot them on a map.
• Internet Search: Tips on using search engines.
• Tips: Computer tips.
• Useful Links: Free links on the internet.

Repairing Old Photos With GIMP
(gimp_photo_repair.zip 362MB)
http://bit.ly/bnWaeJ

• Introduction: Introduction to GIMP
• Picture File Format: Pros & Cons of different picture formats.
• Scanning & Acquiring A Photo: Loading pictures into GIMP.
• Using The Selection, Curves & Levels Tools: Using different tools in GIMP.
• Wrinkle Repair: Repair wrinkles and other defects with GIMP.
• Fixing A Torn Picture: Fixing a picture torn in half.

Rede has licensed this work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

So feel free to copy, share, remix just respect the license & keep it free.

Photographing Documents on Microfilm Readers

In this video Rede goes into the use of using a digital camera to photograph images from Microfilm & Microfiche Readers. The pros & cons of a digital camera with a tripod, camera mount, and holding the camera. He also goes into editing the digital images with Picasa & GIMP, free imaging software.

The advantages of these techniques are cost, time, and quality. Not as good as a real microfilm scanner, but scanners are not available everywhere.

Looks like the DCM-1 Microfilm Camera Mount that he shows in this video is still available: http://www.gscassociates.com/camera_mount.html

Software used in this video:
Picasa: http://picasa.google.com/
GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/

Rede on RootsTelevision.com: Round 2

Another one of Rede’s videos has made it to RootsTelevision. This video is Site Search Genealogy Style http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_howto.php?bctid=9119681001

Photographing Oversized Pictures

Occasionally it is impossible or impractical to use your scanner on old photos and documents. A camera & tripod or copy stand is a good alternative.

These two websites may help:
How to build a (Cheap) copy stand.
http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=19857

Getting Started: Copy Stand Shooting (uses a tripod & music stand and also teaches good technique)
http://www.videomaker.com/article/6807/

One problem when using a camera on old photos and documents is you can get a barrel effect & it is hard to get a perfect angle. In GIMP http://gimp.org/ (a free open source program) has a filter called “Lens Distortion” in Filters>Distortion where you can manually correct it (use the “Main” slider bar in the “Lens Distortion”). Then you can take care of any angle problems with the “Perceptive button” or Tools>Transform Tools>Perceptive. I just click & drag the ruler guides from the ruler across the 4 sides, then I use the “Perceptive Tool” to click & drag the corners of the frame or edges of the picture to the corners of the guide.

In Episode 038 of Meet The GIMP http://meetthegimp.org/episode-038-a-phython-in-a-barrel/ Rolf Steinort has written a plugin for GIMP that makes taking care of the Barrel Effect created by your camera easy. Some of my pictures it over corrected but it got me in the ballpark, others it did a wonderful job. I recommend watching his video & downloading the “Python source code” and adding it to your GIMP plugins. For Windows users unzip the file & paste the 3 files into “C drive>Documents and Settings>[[User name]]>.gimp-2.6>plug-ins” it will then appear as “Barrel distortion removal CA65” in “Filters>Distort”.

Rede made a video specifically dealing with the Barrel Effect & Perceptive Tool and how it applies with old photos & documents: http://blip.tv/file/1554370

Bouse Genies Meeting Schedule

The Bouse genealogy club is in full swing. We are welcoming back our winter visitors as well as all others that are interested in learning about or continuing in the pursuit of your ancestors. Our meetings are open to all who wish to attend. We have modified our regular meeting schedule to meet the needs of those who work. We meet in the Bouse Community Building which is right next to the Bouse Public Library on Plomosa Road, Bouse, AZ.

Our program schedule for December and January is:

• December 5, 2008 - 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon - Program - a Training CD on "Beginning Legacy Family Tree" software.
• December 19, 2008 - 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM - Program - "Beginning Genealogy Research" by Carolyn H. Brown
• January 2, 2009 - 10:00 AM - 12:00 noon - Program - a Training CD on "Using AniMap" software
• January 16, 2009 - 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM - Program - "Using the Federal Census" by Carolyn H. Brown
• January 30, 2009 - 10:00 AM - 12:00 noon - Open meeting for discussion

Rede Videos

Rede has now authored over 20 videos on ShowMeDo, so I added the Author Button for an easy access to the site (scroll down below links). Some of the videos that might interest to the genealogist is Reparing Old Photos with GIMP, and editing sound files that you could use with lectures, podcasts or interviews.

Don't forget aboutt his GenealogyScrounge videos on blip.tv and youtube.

Bouse Genies October 24th Meeting

The October 24th meeting for the Bouse Genies will be a Legacy Family Tree video and a pot luck salad lunch. Bring a dish, plate & utensils.

They will be meeting at the Bouse Community Building, which is the old cafeteria, the building to the East of the Bouse Public Library 10:00 AM to Noon (44031 Plomosa Rd, Bouse, AZ).

Visitors Welcome.

Oral History: Memory Triggers

It can be a bit intimidating when you ask someone if you can talk to them about their memories. Why not just ask them if you can look at some of their old pictures, nic nacs, maybe just ask them to tell you about pictures you have. Even just go over to watch an movie or listen to Old Time Radio. Taking them to a museum is an incredible way to get them talking about their life, you have the drive to & from to talk and the old items they used in their life. Another good way is at family reunions, just sit in the back and listen. Whenever possible ask them who, what, where, when & why.

When they are looking at old photos it is going to bring back memories that you want to make record of & fill in gaps you may have. I enjoy listening to Old Time Radio when I was driving and it was about 125 miles to take my mother to the doctor. She would tell me about her life while that was playing. I found out how proud grandpa was of his first radio, how they had to take the battery out of the truck to use it, and a simple as a commercial she wondered if that was why her father started drinking postum, just to name a few gems.

You can get digital recorders now that can record hours of content and aren’t very threatening. There are several free programs you can edit these files so you can snip out the information you don’t want or paste different talks together. That way you can either transcribe it or you have a recorded treasure.

I would like to hear what you use as memory trigger, so please leave a comment.

New Video From Rede

Labeling Your Digital Images
http://blip.tv/file/1117029
How to label your digital genealogy images so you & others can easily identify them later. There are plenty of free good programs out there, you will just need one that you can change the canvas size & add text. For this I will use GIMP http://gimp.org/ , a good free program.

Embedding Information In A Digital Photo
http://blip.tv/file/1117482
How to embed text in an image with properties

Pro Photo Tools Part 1
http://blip.tv/file/1119127
Pro Photo Tools http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/ , a free program to embed text into your digital photos. This video will go into location name, GPS coordinates, identify location on a map, view images on a map.

Pro Photo Tools Part 2
http://blip.tv/file/1122813
A brief explanation of other text you can embed in a digital photo and other information you can view with Pro Photo Tools http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/ . This will include description, date time, other, categories, shot, camera, and photographer.

Site Search Genealogy Style
http://blip.tv/file/1123735
Using Google Tool Bar's "Site Search" to help you search a website, or use "site:domain.com" in a search engine to speed up you genealogy searches.

Descendant Book Numbering System
http://blip.tv/file/1148456
The Register System is a very easy way to use a descendant book. I hope this video will help you enter the information into your genealogy.

Making An Audio Book From Lectures And Podcasts

With digital recorders & podcasts you can now build a nice collection of informative information, but many times they are rather long to listen to in one sitting. Audiobook Cutter http://audiobookcutter.sourceforge.net/ makes it very easy to chop it up into smaller sections so you can come back to where you left off, and many MP3 players will remember the track you stopped at and continue from there. You can also burn these tracks into audio files that will play in a regular CD player.

Audiobook Cutter also has another advantage, file sizes can be too big for emailing. With this program you can change the length of the track & it will be smaller files so it passes the size limits on attachments.

Rede has done 2 videos on how to edit and convert your sound files into MP3 files with Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ and cut up those files with Audiobook Cutter at ShowMeDo http://showmedo.com/videos/series?name=DRALbzyJZ

Portability Of AniMap

Playing around with AniMap http://www.goldbug.com/AniMap.html I have discovered I can run it off my USB stick. Now I don’t have to be limited to just my computer, I can run it when I’m away from home.

I have not upgraded to their newest version 2.6, I am still running 2.51. But the only thing I have to do is copy the AniMap folder onto the root directory of my USB stick & make sure the assigned drive for the stick is between C-F. I have only had problems on 1 computer, but I’m sure the problem was the hard drive had been partitioned. So between the partitions & 2 CD drives, that put my stick higher than F.

More on AniMap:
http://quartzsitegen.blogspot.com/2006/05/county-boundaries.html

Communication

I can’t stress the importance getting out on there and contacting other researcher, via message boards, people that have posted their genealogy to the Internet, etc… But to avoid spammer you may want to get another email address because the spam bots are out there reading email address that have been posted to the web.

There are many free places out there to get emails but it can be rather tiring always checking them just to find nothing. The way I handle this is using the instant messaging programs that are also offered with them. Myself I use a free program called Pidgin http://pidgin.im/ , it capable of connecting with AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, XMPP, ICQ, IRC, SILC, SIP/SIMPLE, Novell GroupWise, Lotus Sametime, Bonjour, Zephyr, MySpaceIM, Gadu-Gadu, and QQ all at once. It will notify me when an email comes in & will give me the sender’s name & subject of the message. The disadvantage to this program is no voice or video chatting. But what I like the best is it doesn’t change or add things to my browser, you can choose to have it load at boot up or manually load it, and I can several identities on one mail server.

Now you may want to scan and organize your pictures and documents because they are great things to trade with, and people will go more out of their way getting you information if you give them something they don’t have.

When first starting out Surname message boards are good, but I have more success with county & religious message boards. County histories & Church records are wonderful in your research.

A good thing to remember what goes around comes around. So find out what local resources are available to you and volunteer to help other via message boards and lookup services like www.raogk.org and www.usgenweb.org county sites.

Making A PDF Document

People ask, why would you make a PDF file when all you can do is print or view this document? The main reason is different computers and even different word processor programs will not open a document the same. So when layout is important, like when a document with an index or newsletters or limit how people can use your document you will want to do it as a PDF file.

One I use a lot is PrimoPDF http://www.primopdf.com/ , it work like a printer driver so if you can print it, you can make a PDF file and best of all it’s free. I see the last version the horizontal printing problem has been fixed. To a horizontal print click “custom” when PrimoPDF’s screen comes up.

There are many different free PDF creators out there so look around & see what you like. They all work about the same, you click File > Print > select the PDF creator > click OK > tell it where to save the file > click OK. The only differences are how you change the settings.

Rede’s demo with PrimoPDF:
http://blip.tv/file/476452

Converting PDF into RTF

PDF is a very popular way exchanging documents because the layout stays the same no matter what computer you are on, BUT there is no way to edit them or put them in your notes in your genealogy program. There are two ways I do it. Copy/Paste from Acrobat Reader or OCR it.

With Copy/Paste you need to paste it into word processor using the text selection tool. But you have to find the beginnings of your paragraphs & take out the end of lines within that paragraph. I will “Justify” all the text and do an indent, that way I can see my paragraphs.

The other is OCR but rather than print, scan, and convert to text, you just use the snapshot tool in Acrobat to copy and paste it into your OCR program. I found a free program that does an ok job of this called TopOCR http://www.topocr.com/ . It doesn’t work well with bold, italics, or pictures, but for free it does speed things up. I just found out if you change your setting to scanner mode "Settings->Image-> Source->Scanner" it will do a better job even with this copy/paste method in TopOCR.

Rede’s method:
Share Convert a PDF into a RTF Part 1 (Copy/Paste)
http://blip.tv/file/449914

Share Convert a PDF into a RTF Part 2 (OCR)
http://blip.tv/file/449936

Making Multi Page PDF Images With IrfanView

One nice thing about Multi Page PDF files are for things like Wills and other documents that take several pages, you can make a single file out of them for archiving & emailing.

I have talked about making multi page documents with IrfanView back in April of 2007. With the new update they fixed the compression problems I was getting with making multi page PDF documents with IrfanView. You can now choose how much compression you want to put into the images, thus making smaller files.

You will need to download & install the program & plugins from http://www.irfanview.net/ . It is DonationWare which means anything you want to donate is appreciated.

I think you can actually scan with IrfanView and save as a multi page PDF. But for this article I will just take a few pictures & combine them.

Steps for make a multi page TIF that some people prefer for archiving:

• Open IrfanView.
• Click “View”> put mouse over “Multiple Page Images”> and click “Create Multiple Page TIF”.
• Click “Add Images” find the images you want> sort if needed> click “Compression” choose what you want> click “Browse” to put it where you want it on your computer> give it a “name”> click “Create TIF Image” and your done.

Steps for make a multi page PDF with IrfanView:

• Open your TIF file in IrfanView.
• Click “Save As”> choose "Save as type: PDF - Portable Document Format".
• In the PDF Settings Tab "layout" Page Format=Like Image. Page Rotation=none. Page Border=unchecked. Compression Tab=Activate Compression is checked & "True Color Images" and "Grayscale Images" are set to "JPG (medium quality)".
• Give it a name and click “Save”.

7 color images totaling 8 megs became a 76 meg TIF, on the medium compression setting I ended up with a single 1.64 meg multi page PDF file.

Using Online Photo Galleries To Identify Pictures

I have been using Picasa http://picasa.google.com & Picasaweb http://picasaweb.google.com to identify old photos that were in my grandmother’s trunk, and it has been a great success.

Any online photo gallery will work here. All I did was upload my photos to a public gallery & email a link to the site to relatives. Then ask them to try to identify the pictures, also ask them to let any of their relatives know about what I’m doing.

The only problem with Picasaweb was there was no way to edit comments, just delete them.