In this life of fast food, fast technology, instant information, and instant communication, is it any wonder that people expect the whole "comment leaving" experience on blogs to be easy? Simple? Fast? Instant?

I get it. You want my name. [And really? I want you to have my name.]

I get it. You want my email, but you promise not to publish it. [And really? Mine are plastered all over the internet for all and sunder to find so why I want to be so secretive, I'll never know. I'm already getting spam that's filtered straight into its very own folder.]

I get it. You'd like my website address. [And really? I SO want you to have it.]

But anything else? Is way too much. Also, I have a confession to make. Lately I've been bypassing comments on blogs if they have those Captcha puzzles on there. Maybe I'm too lazy. Or sometimes it's because I get it wrong and have to re-enter it. Several times. [That's annoying.] I know. I know. I'm too impatient. And I get where you're coming from as well. You don't want to be spammed in your comments, etc., etc.

But lately I've noticed a drop in comments on my blogs. And just between you, me & the gatepost, there are some days I wouldn't mind a spam comment or two. At least I'd know someone was reading what I'd written. [Maybe.] Seriously. Then I'd laugh. Shake my head. And hit the delete button. Easy-peasy and I got a good laugh. [And I'd probably tweet about it too.]

Also, most of the time I'm reading blog posts on my iPhone. Those Captcha thingies are too hard to do on there. But if you leave a question on your blog that I can answer or *gasp* we're related and I want to tell you all about it, it's a little difficult.

The point is that it's important to foster a community and to foster a discussion on your blog so that people want to come back. Again and again and again. And that's hard to do when your comments are closed awaiting for you to approve whatever your reader had to say about what you wrote. If someone does leave something inappropriate, you can delete it just as fast as you can approve it.

And Companies?
I've noticed more and more lately that companies and organizations are adding blogs to their sites, which is excellent. [Can you feel the 'but' coming on?]

BUT then they have comments turned off. *Big Sigh* and *SMH* Blogs are a part of the social media realm, and the whole point of social media is fostering a social network ~ communication ~ between their organization and their potential customers and current customers. Why? So that if they are in need of what they have to sell to them to solve their problem later on down the road, they remember the company or organization that helped them. And companies don't want to be remembered as not caring about what a reader had to say in response to a blog post. That is, if the reader remembers the company or organization at all.

Sometimes, I get the feeling that companies and organizations don't care what I think and that they don't want my input at all when they don't have comments open or if they make it really hard for me to sign up to leave a comment [i.e., 3 web pages to register in order to leave a comment and then it doesn't take me back to what I want to comment on. Seriously?]. What if I wanted to tell that company how great their product or service is and what an awesome impact it has had on my life? Don't they want to hear that? Don't they want other readers [potential customers] to hear that?

Blogs are not just a place for one-way communication from the company or organization to their readers, but a place to interact. They aren't just a place to post your press releases either. Sure, they can [and do] post press releases on their blogs, but it should be sandwiched in between blog posts that are fostering communication between the company and their readers. No one is going to check back into a blog to read press releases. [Well, almost no one.]

Your blog can be so much more than just a bulletin board. Don't waste it.

And? Make it easy and fast. I'm impatient. ;)

More about blogs for beginners to professionals coming soon on my blog BloggingGenealogy.com, where comments are open and welcomed. And where I invite you to subscribe to that blog's mailing list. [And you can sign up for this one, too, in the top right hand corner after scrolling up.]

Please feel free to leave comments here, there and everywhere. Really. Please.

~Caroline

Okay. It's been a while since I've visited Geneabloggers.com's website. So sue me. BUT...

Did you know that the ever-industrious Thomas MacEntee has a very hip search box capability in the sidebar of his website? But this is no ordinary run-of-the-mill search box. Oh no. [Thomas never does anything ordinary or run-of-the-mill.]

Thomas has a fantabulous search box that can search the 2000+ Geneabloggers' blogs on Geneabloggers.com. He even invites visitors to search surnames in his fantabulous search box.

You're probably thinking, "Duh. It's been there for a while, Caroline."

And my reply? "When was the last time you entered a surname that you've been researching in that fantabulous search box to see if other geneabloggers are researching and blogging that surname?"

Yeah. "Duh."

Now, more common names like, oh I dunno like Smith, are not gonna be easy to search, but I tried a less common surname in my line, Blacketer, and BINGO! I have some peeps to contact.

"Hello? Yes. Um. You don't know me, but I noticed you are a fellow Geneablogger, and I noticed that you blogged about some Blacketer ancestors..."

Yeah. Duh. So go over to Geneabloggers.com and look for some geneabloggers blogging about the same surnames as you in that fantabulous search box.

Thanks, Thomas! =)

~Caroline

Over the weekend 1000memories.com shared the results of their recent survey on family history. The survey found that more people than ever are interested in learning about their family history but they (on average) know even less about their genealogy. This week, four of the genealogy community’s top thinkers will share their reactions, starting today with Caroline Pointer.

It’s time to throw away the genealogy rule book.

No more of having to be retired or having to be over a certain age to look for who begat you.

No more of reading and memorizing a 300-page tome of “More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About Genealogy” before you ever think about “doing” genealogy.

No more spending all day in a library (unless you really want to, of course).

No more making fun of other people’s family trees located online or offline. After all, right or wrong, they are at least trying.

No more dry and boring genealogical and historical society meetings where younger people are not only made to feel unwelcome but discouraged to visit, join, or, heaven forbid, make a suggestion .

No more scheduling genealogy-related or family history-related meetings and conferences when those who are employed full-time cannot possibly attend.

Basically, no more doing things the same old way just because that’s the way it has always been done.

The key to lessening the disparity between those who want to know who their ancestors were and those who actually take steps to learn who their ancestors were is through a combination of education and allowing people to do it on their own terms. It should be goal-based. Perhaps a person’s goal is to learn the medical history of their ancestors. Perhaps another person’s goal is to memorialize a loved one’s life, and yet another person’s goal is to have a complete genealogy that is perfectly sourced.

All are equally valuable in their own right as well as possibly valuable to the other. For example, perhaps the person who researches their medical history unknowingly stumbles upon something of value to someone else, and in blogging about it on their non-genealogy or non-family history blog, they unwittingly share it with a family history researcher who needed that information to solve a “brick wall” problem?

Likewise, what if the person who memorializes a loved one’s life on say, 1000Memories.com, shares a story of their loved one, and in that story were clues that the genealogical researcher needed to complete their genealogy?

Moreover, while a fundamental change is very helpful from the “top down”, it is more practical at a community level. It is important to remove the stigma that genealogy is only for those who are retired.  Below are just a few ideas that community groups and organizations should at least take into consideration:

• Family and community history should be incorporated more into schools by placing modern tools and curriculum into the hands of educators.
• The trial-and-error method of research should be acknowledged and embraced so that all feel comfortable to try, to make errors and to find truths.
• More modern methods should be used for local education and outreach in communities, in genealogical and historical societies, in libraries, etc.
• Communities should implement mentoring programs with a more seasoned researcher paired with a younger researcher. There is so much one can teach and learn from the other.
• Accommodate those with differing schedules by offering a 2nd meeting of the group or organization at a different time for those who aren’t retired.

None of the above will matter, though, if we don’t incorporate modern technology into everything we do. It’s the game-changer. Technology can allow younger groups to participate like never before. Just imagine a program where younger people were unleashed in a retirement home, and they captured family stories on Smartphones? How about if they were unleashed in an old forgotten cemetery and with their Smartphones, they captured and uploaded all the photos of and information from the tombstones to an online site?

Further, what about all those descendants who have moved from the area that the ancestors once lived in? Are genealogical and historical societies in those areas thinking about programs for these people when they schedule programs? Could they learn how to use webinars and other online tools to reach out to these descendants as well as to the local community?

The point is that the genealogy world needs to meet people where they are, assess what those people need, and provide a platform that is inviting and relevant to them. It can’t afford not to do it. Do we really want our descendants sitting around wondering who we were and wondering why we didn’t capture what we could with the technology we had?

Do you want to participate in the conversation? 1000Memories invites and encourages you to blog and/or tweet about it. Please send the link to [email protected] or tweet what you think and use the hashtag #familyhistorymonth in the tweet. Next Saturday, 1000memories will publish a summary of all the perspectives and ideas shared.

~Caroline


When she’s not suggesting crazy ideas like putting Smartphones into the hands of the young and unleashing them in retirement communities to record family stories, Caroline M. Pointer is recording her own family stories with every tool that she can think of on her personal family history blog, Family Stories.  Caroline is a professional genealogist and family historian who enjoys sharing what she’s learned when technology and genealogy collide on her blog, 4YourFamilyStory.com. She has a new blog for beginners and professionals alike launching soon, BloggingGenealogy.com, where she will share about getting more out of genealogy and blogging. Also, she is the In2Genealogy columnist for the E-magazine, Shades of the Departed. Caroline can be reached at CMPointer [AT] gmail [DOT] com. However, most often she can be found on that newfangled social media blue bird site called Twitter at @FamilyStories.
 

Nancy Shively [ GatheringStories.com ]correctly answered the Once-a-Week Fantabulous Genie-Tech Newsletter's question!! There were 2 cats in CNET.com's YouTube video, Device & Conquer: Tablets Take T.V. Further. Nancy won the Google for Genealogists webinar-on-CD by Thomas MacEntee.

Don't despair, though! You can still be a winner. I have six more webinar-on-CDs from Legacy Family Tree Webinars. [Lucky you.]

If you have already signed up or if you sign up to receive the Once-a-Week Fantabulous Genie-Tech Newsletter, correctly answer the question in the next newsletter that will be published next Saturday, 22 Oct 2011, and email me first with the correct answer, then you will win a copy of [drumroll, please]:

Preserving Family Photographs webinar-on-CD by Maureen Taylor

See, I told you there were no cheesy prizes here, folks.

What Do You Get in the Newsletter?
It will include all the goings-on here at For Your Family Story for the week, the goings-on in the fantabulous and exciting world of genealogy, as well as extra Genie-Tech info that you won't find on this blog, and I dare say anywhere else. Or at least it won't be found anywhere else wrapped up in my humor. ;) So, if you love my blog AND you're a busy person and need all your essential info in one place ~ 1 newsletter in your inbox ~ where you can read it at your leisure, then you definitely should sign up for my Once-a-Week Fantabulous Genie-Tech Newsletter. Like, right away. =) Don't worry. I won't be spamming you. It's just a Once-a-Week Fantabulous Genie-Tech Newsletter. 52 of them. Per year. For free.

So. Who's gonna be this next week's winner?

[Note: In the interest of full disclosure, I am an affiliate of Legacy. In addition, I received this webinar-on-CD from Legacy in my Geneablogger swag bag at the Southern California Genealogical Society's 2011 Jamboree. And now? It can be all yours. Think about that. Then subscribe below and be the first to answer the question in next week's newsletter.]

~Caroline

Mary: Do you know the name of your great-grandfather?
John: No.

Mary: Do you know where they came from?
John: No.

Mary: Well, would you like to know who they are and what your family history is?
John: Yeah.

Mary: Why haven't you started?
John: Well,...


1000Memories has done a survey that shows that while the number of people wanting to learn about their family history is on the rise, the number of people who actually know something about their family history is on the decline. [Dude. Right?] Why is this the case? What are we going to do about it? And I don't mean right now or next week. I mean, for the long haul, what are we going to do about this? 1000Memories has assembled a genealogy roundtable to discuss all of this, and they graciously asked me to participate. [Uh oh.] I hope everyone's ready because I definitely have an opinion on this. Other genealogy roundtable participants will be Thomas MacEntee, Amy Johnson Crow, and Randy Whited. Y'all ready? [And? Did you notice there's 2 Texans on the panel?]

So come back Monday to read my thoughts on all of this. In the meantime, take a look at what 1000Memories found out in their survey.

~Caroline

Well, have you? You know, signed up for my Once-a-Week Fantabulous Genie-Tech Newsletter?

It will include all the goings-on here at For Your Family Story for the week, the goings-on in the fantabulous and exciting world of genealogy, as well as extra Genie-Tech info that you won't find on this blog, and I dare say anywhere else. Or at least it won't be found anywhere else wrapped up in my humor. ;) So, if you love my blog AND you're a busy person and need all your essential info in one place ~ 1 newsletter in your inbox ~ where you can read it at your leisure, then you definitely should sign up for my Once-a-Week Fantabulous Genie-Tech Newsletter. Like, right away. =) Don't worry. I won't be spamming you. It's just a Once-a-Week Fantabulous Genie-Tech Newsletter. 52 of them. Per year. For free.

And? To sweeten the deal, in this week's newsletter will be a question. The first subscriber who emails me the correct answer gets a copy of Thomas MacEntee's Google For Genealogists Webinar-on-CD from Legacy Family Tree. And? If you were to go buy it, it'd cost you $9.95. That's right. No cheesy prizes here at 4YourFamilyStory.com. [Note: In the interest of full disclosure, I am an affiliate of Legacy, and I received this webinar-on-CD from Legacy in my Geneablogger swag bag at the Southern California Genealogical Society's 2011 Jamboree. And now? It can be all yours. Think about that. Then subscribe below and be the first to answer the question in the newsletter.]

~Caroline

I thought Fridays would be a good day of the week to give you a simple tip to help you maintain your genealogy family history research fitness. So, here it is. When was the last time you searched YouTube for clues to your family history?

Then it's been too long.

And if you are a part of a library or genealogical and historical society, have you ever considered getting volunteers to video different ways your organization can help researchers? My iPhone takes great video. Check it out:

Here's a great example of a video involving family history. [Look at all those clues!] that I found on YouTube, A Pictorial Family Tree of Roger Allen Graves, Marshall , MI:

Also? Have you ever searched Vimeo's website? It has videos too. It's just not as popular as YouTube, but it has a more aesthetic layout. Here's a great example of video called Genealogical Materials, which is a part of a series, done by Knox County Public Library in Tennessee:

So, what are you waiting for? Go find a family history or how-to video this weekend. They're waiting for you.

~Caroline

That's An App Thursday Series

What is a Smartphone?
Basically, a Smartphone is a handheld personal computer, a digital camera, a video player, a portable music player, and a mobile phone.

Why would anyone want a contraption like that?

Well, if you enjoy doing the following, then perhaps you would NOT like a Smartphone:

• Going to a cemetery with your digital camera and taking photos of tombstones & then going home, getting distracted by ‘life’ and then 2 weeks later finally getting around to downloading said photos so then you can upload them to FindAGrave.com.
• Driving by a small neglected cemetery on the way to somewhere else & thinking you must start carrying your digital camera everywhere you go so you can stop to “walk the tombstones”.
• And you’re wondering why you didn’t check the forecast before leaving home because you might have time to “walk the tombstones” on the way back from wherever you’re going to today.
• Being behind the very nice lady with a big stack of books who’s digging for change in her purse at the only copier in the library that you haven’t broken. [Oops, I mean the only copier that isn’t possessed. Yes, it happens. Just check out Amy Coffin's We Tree Genealogy Blog post from today.]
• Going home, turning on your computer, waiting for it to boot up; checking, responding  to, and deleting  email; finally checking your favorite social media flavor [mine’s Twitter]; and realizing if you had been on [insert favorite social media flavor] earlier you would’ve known about the 'can’t miss' webinar that’s been going on already for 30 minutes by [insert name of your favorite genealogist].
• Wishing you hadn’t left your calendar at home because that’s where you wrote down the name of so-n-so’s husband’s 2nd great grandparent and now you’re at the library for, well, nothing. And, wow, if you had brought your laptop you could boot it up and email so-n-so to get the name again.
• Sitting in the waiting area of the car wash watching a [insert whatever t.v. show is mind-numbing to you] on the t.v. with the sound off wishing you could be listening to a genealogy podcast on your iPod but you left it on the charger on the kitchen counter at home.
• Booting up the ol' desktop, because you realized that you have a little spare time to surf eBay for family heirlooms.
  
• Sitting at the library wishing you had remembered to pack your laptop charger so you could look up your 3rd great-grandfather’s 4th wife’s first husband’s name.
• Getting into your car after photographing tombstones at an unfamiliar cemetery in an unfamiliar town wishing you knew of a place where you could get a quick bite to eat.
• Driving around aimlessly because you forgot the directions to the [insert archives, library, cemetery, courthouse, etc.] at home on the kitchen table where you had been looking them over while eating breakfast.

If you enjoy doing all of the above, then don’t read any more of this blog post or series. Seriously. Just leave and go to your desktop and log on to Facebook and play Farmville.

But? If you don’t enjoy any of the above situations and if you are ready to become more efficient in your research - both doing it and sharing it - then stick around.  A Smartphone can help in these situations and so many more. [Lots more.]

Apps Are the Secret
The reason the Smartphone has so much functionality to it is because of what’s called a 3rd party Application that can run on it, also called an ‘App’. The developers of these Apps are quite clever and have created so many nifty tools that can be applied to genealogical and family history research. [Some of those developers didn’t even know they were helping us genealogists out.]

There are several types of Smartphones and they all run on operating systems that allow it to run its applications. Apple's iPhone runs on the iOS, Blackberry runs on the Blackberry Operating System, and there are various brands that run on Google's Android Operating System. I’m not going to get into the differences between them because that’s not the point of this post. The point is to convince you that a Smartphone can be very helpful to in your research, and dare I say, life. [How am I doing?] Hopefully, I've interested you enough to come back next week for the 1st app spotlight.

Additionally in deciding on a Smartphone, a big consideration should be which one has the apps that you’d like to use. And that’s the point of this series. I'll be presenting a new app each week, explaining how to use it, and how it can be applied to doing and/or sharing your research. I'll also let you know what operating systems it is available for.

Already have a Smartphone, but you haven’t ventured past email and Facebook? Tell me which App you’d like me to spotlight in this series. Or do you have some research difficulties that you think an App can help you with, but you don’t know how to use it?

Let me know. Comments are always welcome and strongly encouraged. [Really.]

Also, if you are a Smartphone user who has a favorite app that you use in your research, and you'd like to guest post for this series, contact me. [Especially if you have an Android-based Smartphone. Mine is an iPhone.]

~Caroline

The following is a press release from JustaJoy.com:

Doug Miller, resident of Santa Clarita, CA, has found a new calling.  An avid genealogist with records on his own family back to the 16th century, Miller has long understood the enchantment of the ancestral call, and now he hopes to share the obsession in a very unique way.   For more than thirty years, Miller has invested in land grants, steel engravings, conveyance receipts, Revolutionary War pay documents and other pieces of ephemera.  These items would be interesting to any collector, but the genealogist in Miller told him that they would especially be precious to family historians. He explains, “Although I always understood that these pieces were valuable, I never really knew what to do with them until I met Joy.”   Joy is Joy Shivar, owner of the JustaJoy.com Family Heirloom Exchange, an indexed website designed to match original antiques and artifacts back to families.“It always seems that the person in charge of distributing an estate is the wrong one and important family items end up in the hands of antique dealers or collectors.  JustaJoy.com is designed to alleviate this situation.  We call it ‘Antique Hunting in the Family Tree’ for ‘Orphaned Heirlooms’”, she explains.   Besides documents, other items found on the website include pictures, newspapers, advertising pieces, family Bibles, furniture, trophies and other engraved items, yearbooks and much more. JustaJoy.com is currently advertising original items associated with nearly 40,000 families and, according to Shivar, new surname-related items are added nearly everyday by the antique dealers and others who own them. A $20.00 annual membership fee entitles users to full access to all information on each item including the name of the current owner, contact information and the asking price.  Buyers and sellers work directly and the site does not charge commissions, buyer’s premiums or final value fees.

An important feature of the site is the “surname notification” service.  Members are automatically notified as new items are added that match any of the names on their personal surname list (up to twenty can be entered).  Although sold items remain on the site as a resource, the surname notification is important to interested buyers because there is usually only one of each item available.   Miller met Shivar at a recent conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies held in Springfield, IL and as she explained the service provided by JustaJoy.com, he instantly thought of his archive and how valuable his pieces could be to the right descendant. Miller can picture the joy that an e-mail, associated with one of his items, could bring. “It’s a win-win-win for everyone,” he said, “I’m excited to be a part of it.”   For more information on the JustaJoy.com Family Heirloom Exchange visit www.JustaJoy.com or contact Joy Shivar at 704-948-1912 or [email protected]


All questions should be directed to Joy Shivar at the phone number and/or email address listed above.

~Caroline

• Don’t you wish sometimes that you could lay out your photos and documents – both paper and digital – in such a way that you could see the whole story, or perhaps a portion of the story?
• Don’t you think it’d be nice to take this layout and show it to a family member because you just know the photos and documents would really interest them because they are more visual? They’d like to “see” the story, not read it.
• Maybe if you had a bulletin board and you laid everything out on it, you could make sense of your research problem, or maybe a pattern would emerge.
• Maybe an older family member would like to just sit and reminisce with that pictorial family story bulletin board.
• Maybe a younger family member would like to sit in wonder and amazement at their family history pictures on the bulletin board.
• Wouldn’t it be kind of cool to have a bulletin board with images of unique genealogy-related gifts  and crafts that you have found?
• Wouldn’t it be handy to show reluctant family members some of your blog posts using the related photos from them with only a few words to describe them with links back to the story? You know. Just in case they want to read the whole story?
• What if there was a way to share your love of genealogy and the idea of family history in a non-pushy way with others who have similar interests?
• Wouldn’t it be amazing to chronicle the places a family has lived with photos on a bulletin board?
• Wouldn’t it be so very organized to layout in pictures all the places your ancestors lived and where you’d like to visit someday?
• Wouldn’t be cool to find a distant relative through photo-sharing? [Don’t look at me like that. It could happen.]

Well, rest easy. You can do all of these things and more. In fact, only your imagination is the limit. A site called Pinterest can help you do all of these things. What is Pinterest? It describes itself as:

"Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favorite recipes."

Basically, Pinterest is a place to create bulletin boards of photos of things you like that you find on the internet as well as from photos you take and upload. And you share your boards with others and they share theirs with you. People are able to look at what you pin on your boards, they can 'like' your pins, repin them to their boards, and/or comment on them. And you can do the same with their pins on their boards.

But that’s not all.  I’ve managed to use it for genealogy and family history. [Surprise. Surprise.]

The result? Bulletin boards that look like digital magazines. Seriously. Have family members that don’t like to read about their history on your blog? No problem. Pin photos from your blogs on a board. They can take a look at these photos, and they’ll be hooked [at least for a little while] on their family history. It takes minimal time to create these boards, but the results are phenomenal and make you look like a rock star. Perfect.

Found a really awesome craft to make heritage Christmas ornaments with an image of it on a site? No problem. Pin it onto a board of yours and share it with, well, the world [at least the Pinterest World.] Get your family signed up to Pinterest and share your family’s stories through photos, make heritage holiday crafts and gifts together, and so much more.

And? You know what’s so silly? I’m trying to describe a photo-based site with words. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far in 4 days. On one of my boards, I have pinned images from my Family Stories blog. On another, I've pinned images that I found when looking at all the places my Vaughan family line has lived. In fact, in looking for images of these places online, I found more information about my family. [Hello!?!] Be careful, though. It’s addictive with just one look. Seriously. [You’ve been warned.] Here all the boards I’ve created so far [some genealogy-related & some not cuz that’s how I roll]:

Family Stories on Pinterest  [ http://pinterest.com/familystories/]

Pretty cool, huh?

Some things to keep in mind about Pinterest:

• With every image you pin, the site creates a source link from where you got it so someone else can go look at where you got it from. [Just cite it.]
• You can be the only one to pin images on one of your boards OR you can allow multiple people to pin. That’s right. Family members can work together on a board.  [Just collaborate.]
• Pinterest frowns upon selling your own stuff on here. [Just don’t do that.]
• There should be an app for that. Oh but there *is* an iPhone app. Here’s a screenshot of my boards on my iPhone [Just look at it.]:
  

• Don’t have an iPhone? Their site is mobile ready.  A screenshot of what a pinned item looks like on my iPhone (not using the app) is located at the beginning of this blog post.
  
• You need an invite to join. They can give you one or I can. Just let me know by contacting me. [Just do it.]
  

So. What do you think? Is this something you could/would use for sharing your family history? [Or just for fun?] Other than what I suggested, how else could you use this for family history?

~Caroline