Monday, August 15, 2011

Genealogy Links

This weekend, I've come across a number of genealogy links, as a result of my Google+ account.

A number of Google+-specific websites have sprung up since the Google+ service became available, among them Google+ for Genealogists. In addition, at least a few notable genealogists are on Google+:
I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones I'm specifically aware of.


I love the Genealogy Software Reviews site. There's a short description of each software product, plus a rating system powered by users.

What fun to discover the GenealogyInTime website. This is an online magazine offering free articles. You can sign up to receive their free, weekly email newsletter, which lists all the new offerings of the week; the resources page offers some great resources; and the Genealogy Twitter Reader allows you to follow genealogy tweets.

The British genealogy site GenesReunited has added family history articles to their offerings, and launched a new Facebook quiz app, designed to help you discover which of several historical periods you are best suited for.

There are many factors that contribute to our health and well-being, as well as to the health problems we may encounter throughout our lives. The answer to the old Nature vs. Nurture questions is both! You can help make trips to your physician's office easier, and keep track of important medical information about you and your family by storing your healthcare data online. The article "Discovering a Family Health History Tool – A Summer Journey" on the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) blog recommends the My Family Health Portrait, offered by the Surgeon General’s office, to help you create a record of your family's health, which you can store on your computer. The My Family Health Portrait offers integration with Microsoft HealthVault. I've tried them both out; My Family Health Portrait is simple to use, but is limited in the health conditions covered and offers fewer features than Microsoft HealthVault. Microsoft HealthVault, on the other hand, encourages you to enroll in a number of third-party programs, which can be seen as either a bonus, or an annoyance.

Published in 2005, but still quite interesting (and new for me), the New York Times' "Geographic Society Is Seeking a Genealogy of Humankind" article, by Nicholas Wade, describes a joint project by the National Geographic Society and IBM to "reconstruct a genealogy of the world's populations and the migration paths of early humans from their ancestral homeland in Africa."

One last resource is an Australian site, Onlinenames.net.au, where you can either search for, register, or both, the surnames for which you are searching. Once a surname has been entered, any search performed for that surname through the website will automatically create an email, so you can contact others who are also researching that name. If the surname(s) for which you are looking are extremely common, this might not be the site for you, but it seems likely to be helpful for uncommon names.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you, Dr. Bill! The Daily Themes are very helpful, even though I haven't been responding on as regular a basis as I'd like.

    I love family stories and someday hope to be able to put some of my own family's stories together. I'll have to see if any of our local libraries offers a copy of your book about telling these.

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  2. I haven't quite worked out what google+ is, although I must admit I haven't really tried yet.
    I know I've got 'friends', or whatever they are called, as I am allowing friend requests with fellow genealogy researchers. Another social thingy I am need to learn to utilize...
    Regards,
    Theresa (Tangled Trees)

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  3. Hi TCasteel. I love Google+. I think the most important thing to realize with this service is that the more interesting people you follow, the more enjoyable the service becomes.

    Follow me on Google+ and let me know it's you. I'll add you to my Genealogy Circle. :-)

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