Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Content Mashups = Access to Helpful Information









Just the word Mashups itself can be a bit confusing for some individuals who may not be familiar with the various changes in technology over the last couple of years as they mashup together to create something new and better for the users.

There is evidence of these types of applications right in the palm of one's hand as it holds a smart phone and one glances at the large range of applications so easily accessible at the touch of a finger on a screen.

The same can be said for applications on the internet for many of the genealogists and family historians today. When FindAGrave began in December, 1998, it had no GPS coordinates or special memorial pages and yet today this site has many benefial tools for ancestral seekers everywhere.

Mashups are great as they take two or more great tools and combine to form another new and just as helpful resource. One I thought worth mentioning in my blog is Slideshare.

Slideshare was introduced on the web in October, 2006 as a way for users to upload PowerPoint or Open Office presentationi files and share them online through a You Tube-like interface.  Files can be tagged, and comments left by viewers. Each slide has its own permanent URL for reference. SlideShare is clean, fast and functional and supports various copyright claims, including creative commons. Since its inception, it has become the best way to share presentations, documents and professional videos.

Because the Internet allows individuals the opportunity to learn about anything on a specific topic, it is sometimes difficult to create new content that is fresh and yet conveys a specific message. Slideshare can provide access to new ideas created by others which can enhance one's own learnings and/or improve a current presentation.  

A search for "Family History" returns over 100,000 results and while not each one will be exactly what one wants or is searching for, there will be something there to help with whatever your project may be at the time. With the recent indexing project going on to get the 1940 US Census up and available for free, for this blog we searched this site for 'census records' and found the following:





To find specific topics you may have to vary the terms, however, the search should prove to be helpful and provide additional information that can help to improve any project one may be working on. Once you have located a presentation, click on it and it brings up all others on that particular subject as follows:



This author has always found additional materials from other's perspectives as a way to enhance and improve one's own knowledge on a specific subject.

They now offer a 'Professional Plan' to help market yourself, your business and your expertise, of course they still have a basic plan for free. Take some time to check out this site and perhaps gain some new knowledge on a specific topic or share your own knowledge with others.

Comments and Suggestions are always welcomed!

Building Bridges for All Generations!

Claire (*)
Timeless Genealogies
We're Your Family is "No. 1"

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Monday, July 2, 2012

1940 Indexing Pace: Amazing!








The pace to finish indexing the 1940 US Census is phenonmenal and currently beyond anyones original thoughts as to its success!

The opportunity to be part of this community effort and others at hand is open to anyone and it has shown what we can all accomplish when we work together for a common goal.
The efforts of to bring this census online for free has surpassed all expectations. Currently there are over 137,000 volunteers with more individuals signing up daily. In a recent blog post, the FamilySearch CEO, Dennis Brimhall stated that "we now have more volunteers than lived in Albany, New York when the 1940 census was taken."
Some stats from his blog have already been surpassed as we have just had a big push this very weekend entitled "5 Million Record" day which was promoted all over through social media, word of mouth and various emails. This is their posts so far...







If this is any indication it will definitely be an awesome amount of indexing completed!

I know many have participated and it is definitely interesting to see so many from all over the world helping us out!

Some of the places were. Peru, Idaho, Texas, California, Philippines, Utah, Brazil, North Carolina, Illinois, Washington, DC, Virginia, Siberia, Florida, Delaware, Missouri, Kansas, New York, Oregon, Georgia, Argentina, Minisota,  and so many more...

Tonight in Second Life they were having an in-world indexing party...at the 'Just Genealogy' firepit, they are an awesome and dedicated group of genealogists!

The end result of all this hard work will be shown as more and more states are released completely indexed!

As of June 29th there were 29 states that have searchable indexes:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming. Looking at the 'Overall Progress" chart it shows 78.03 % which is truely amazing!

According to their Facebook page they will publish the full totals tomorrow and perhaps release more completed states...












Regardless of the numbers, a major THANKS to all who particiated and made this possible ... together we can always accomplish so much more...to those who want to join in the fun, go to The1940Census and click on 'Get Started'.




The genealogical community is truely amazing!