Wednesday, December 31, 2008

[UVPAFUG] Press Release for meeting on 10 Jan 2009 and new location

31 Dec 2008

Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events. Ward newsletter editors, please include in your newsletters parts of the first paragraph and mention that there are classes for everyone.

Email me, if you need further information. Thanks.

Don Snow

UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP MEETING AND NEW LOCATION

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 10 Jan 2009, from 9 am until noon IN THE EDGEWOOD/RIVERSIDE LDS CHAPEL, 3511 North 180 East, Provo, Utah. NOTE THE CHANGE IN LOCATION. This LDS chapel is within one mile of the old location and is behind the Jamestown shopping plaza on the east side of University Avenue in the "River Bottoms" part of Provo. You get to it by going on 3700 North east from University Avenue and then south on 180 East. See the map showing the new and old locations on our website given below. The main presentation will be by Michael Ritchey on THE FAMILYSEARCH WIKI: HOW IT CAN HELP NOW AND HOW IT WILL GROW THIS YEAR. The FamilySearch wiki at https://wiki.familysearch.org is a free website designed to allow the genealogical community to provide advice on the best strategies and records to use in finding ancestors. The site is free to everyone, but you must register to add or edit information. This community authoring approach enables the creation of objective advice, rapid revision and translation, and coverage of more places worldwide. In 2009 contributors will be working together on a series of "barn raisings" -- short, intensive community efforts to provide information regarding the best sources, methodologies, and strategies for doing genealogical research in a specific location such as a state in the U.S. or a county in England. This talk will preview what the barn raisings are and show some quick and easy ways you can contribute to this great worldwide project. Everyone is invited to log onto the Wiki and sample the types of information you can find there. Michael Ritchey is a former Family History Center Director in Provo, Ward Family History Consultant, and professional genealogist. He has worked for the Family History Department of the LDS Church since 2000 as a U.S. Reference Consultant at the Family History Library, as manager of the Research Support team, and most recently, as community and content coordinator of FamilySearch wiki on the Community Services team.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are: (1) Clearing Names for the Temple in 2009, by Duane Dudley; (2) Keeping Your PC Healthy, by Jerry Castillo; (3) Q&A on the Family Search Wiki, by Michael Ritchey; (4) Video of November's Main Presentation on WorldConnect at RootsWeb, by Gerhard Ruf; (5) Ancestral Quest 12.1, by Paul Johnson; (6) RootsMagic 3, by Bruce Buzbee; and (7) Legacy 7, by Dean Bennett.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Don Snow, 1st VP; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Beth Ann Wiseman, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Lynne Shumway, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD and Video Library, will all be there. They will help with membership, answer questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org and the press releases are at http://blog.uvpafug.org/. For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Don Snow, 1st Vice President of Utah Valley PAF Users Group

Donald R. Snow, recently returned from the England London Mission, London Family History Centre
Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
snowd@math.byu.edu

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Press Release for Utah Valley PAF Users Group meeting 8 Nov 2008

29 Oct 2008
Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar
of events. Ward newsletter editors, please include in your newsletters parts of the first paragraph and mention that there are classes for everyone.
Email me, if you need further information. Thanks.

Elder Snow

UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP
The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 8 Nov 2008, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by Gerhad Ruf on USING WORLDCONNECT AT ROOTSWEB FOR PUBLISHING AND BACKUP. The presentation will describe the advantages in using the WorldConnect database to publish your genealogical data online and to use it as a backup for that data. There are many options for controlling your data and these will be detailed in the presentation. Gerhard Ruf has worked with various aspects of computers and technology over the past 25 years and since 1995 he has served in the leadership of the Utah Valley PAF Users Group. He has been its President for many years. Gerhard has been presenting classes on genealogical software for at least 10 years and his topics have included many aspects of using computers and the Internet to enhance your family history research. He has spoken at local, regional, and national genealogical conferences and workshops, and is currently employed at MyFamily.com as a Community Operations Specialist at The Generations Network, the parent company of Ancestry, RootsWeb and other genealogical web sites. He develops and teaches classes to the staff on the application of genealogical principles. Gerhard was born in West Germany, grew up in Utah, and graduated from BYU with a degree in Physics. He and his wife, Deon, reside in Orem, Utah.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are the following: (1) Using Google in Genealogy, by Lila Sowards; (2) Free Look-Ups and Free Web Sites, by Laurie Castillo; (3) Q&A on Using WorldConnect by Gerhard Ruf; (4) Individual Mentoring, including a mini-class on using HeritageQuest Online, by Rae Lee Steinacker; (5) Video: (Last month's main presentation) A Practical Guide for Family History Consultants, by DearMYRTLE; (6) Legacy 7, by Joel Graham; (7) An Introduction to RootsMagic 4, by Sue Maxwell; and (8) Ancestral Quest 12, by Gaylon Findlay.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Eileen Phelps, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Lynne Shumway, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD & Video Library, will all be there. They will help with membership, answer questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org and the past press releases are at http://blog.uvpafug.org/. For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Elder Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Elder Donald R. Snow, 1st Vice President of Utah Valley PAF Users Group

Elder Donald R. Snow, England London Mission London Family History Centre (formerly Hyde Park Family History Centre), http://www.hydeparkfhc.orgRetired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; snowd@math.byu.edu

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

[UVPAFUG] Press Release for UVPAFUG Meeting on 11 Oct 2008

01 Oct 2008
Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events. Ward newsletter editors, please include in your newsletters parts of the first paragraph and mention that there are classes for everyone. Email me, if you need further information. Thanks.

Elder Snow


UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP
The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 11 Oct 2008, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by DearMYRTLE (Pat Richley) on A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR FAMILY HISTORY CONSULTANTS. The role of Family History Consultants is crucial to an active FH program in any ward and stake and especially during the much anticipated change-over to new FamilySearch. Many wonder what we can be doing while our long awaited "official" FH manual is still awaiting final signatures? Myrt offers suggestions to build interest among non-genealogists in wards, tackle organization challenges, teach correct research principles even for class participants with diverse ancestral backgrounds, and coordinate with other consultants in the ward and stake. DearMYRTLE is the nom de plume of Pat Richley, a retired post-secondary computer instructor. An active genea-blogger, Myrt is author of DearMYRTLE's Joy of Genealogy (2006), and The Everything Online Genealogy Book (2000), instructor at DearMYRTLE's Salt Lake Study Group, hostess of DearMYRTLE's Family History Hour and the Family History Expos genealogy podcasts, author of the Teach Genealogy Blog, and coordinator for UGG (The Union of Genealogy Groups in Second Life). She recently presented classes at BYU's 2008 Computerized Genealogy Conference, the National Genealogical Society, the Utah Genealogical Association 2008 Fall Conference and will serve as the dinner speaker at UGA's 2009 Salt Lake Institute. Myrt last presented at a Utah Valley PAF Users Group meeting in 2006, where she spoke about "Getting from the Index to the Original". Her website is www.DearMYRTLE.com.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are the following: (1) New FamilySearch, by John Blake; (2) Using WorldVitalRecords, by Robert Raymond; (3) Family Pursuit, by Michael Martineau; (4) Q & A: A Practical Guide for FHCons., by DearMyrtle; (5) Individual Mentoring in the FHC; (6) Ancestral Quest, by Gaylon Findlay (author of AQ); (7) Legacy, by Dean Bennett; and (8) RootsMagic, by Bruce Buzbee (author of RM).

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Eileen Phelps, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Lynne Shumway, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD & Video Library, will all be there. They will help with membership, answer questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org and the past press releases are at http://blog.uvpafug.org/. For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Elder Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Elder Donald R. Snow, 1st Vice President of Utah Valley PAF Users Group


Elder Donald R. Snow, England London Mission, London Family History Centre, http://www.hydeparkfhc.org
Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, snowd@math.byu.edu

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

[UVPAFUG] Press Release for UVPAFUG Meeting on 13 Sep 2008

3 Sep 2008
Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events. Ward newsletter editors, please include in your newsletters parts of the first paragraph and mention that there are classes for everyone. Email me, if you need further information. Thanks.

Elder Snow



UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP
The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 13 Sep 2008, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by Tim Crabb on A RECORD SEARCH OVERVIEW. Record Search is the website linked on http://www.familysearch.org where the records are available that many of you are helping index through http://www.familysearchindexing.org . This is a wealth of indexed records worldwide with millions more being added regularly. The home page has a clickable world map that will take you to a list of indexed records for that part of the world, or click on "View All Collections" to see them categorized by world location. These records include census, vital, church, and many other types, and the list shows which ones have images attached at present. Tim Crabb is the Product Manager for Record Search in the Family and Church History Department of the LDS Church and will be describing the project. Previously Mr. Crabb worked in the high-tech industry for 17 years in many different capacities including sales, Information Technology and development, and enjoys using that experience in the exciting project of helping people find their ancestors using Record Search. For further information about Record Search you can also log onto http://labs.familysearch.org/ and Click on Record Search. The FamilySearch Labs blog, accessible from there, will keep you up to date on new developments and you'll see Tim Crabb's name there answering many questions about the project. To volunteer to help index go to the FamilySearch Indexing website shown above.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are the following: (1) Searching for Completed Ordinances: IIGI and new FamilySearch, by Duane Dudley; (2) LDS Databases, by Pat Andrus; (3) Q&A on Record Search, by Tim Crabb; (4) Individual Mentoring; (5) Ancestral Quest, by Paul Johnson; (6) Legacy, by Dean Bennett; and (7) RootsMagic, by Sue Maxwell.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Eileen Phelps, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Lynne Shumway, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD & Video Library, will all be there. They will help with membership, questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org . For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Elder Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Elder Donald R. Snow, 1st Vice President of Utah Valley PAF Users Group

Elder Donald R. Snow, England London Mission
London Family History Centre (formerly Hyde Park Family History Centre), http://www.hydeparkfhc.org
Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; snowd@math.byu.edu

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

[UVPAFUG] Press Release for UVPAFUG Meeting on 9 Aug 2008


29 Jul 2008
Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events.  Ward newsletter editors, please include in your newsletters parts of the first paragraph and mention that there are classes for everyone.  Email me, if you need further information.  Thanks.

Elder Snow


UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP
The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 9 Aug 2008, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo.  The main presentation will be by Laurie Werner Castillo on FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH AT BYU: THE OTHER FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY. BYU's Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) is a major university library with 5 levels of books, manuscript collections, periodicals, maps and gazetteers, photographs, and displays.  Additionally, it provides an Interlibrary Loan service for patrons to see books from other libraries.  The HBLL website contains a wealth of valuable digital collections with many items of interest to family historians.  The family history section of the HBLL was recently designated as a Family History Library, so it is no longer a Family History Center, but a branch of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.  This presentation will show some of the family history items available at the HBLL, as well as on its website.  Laurie Werner Castillo is a mother and grandmother first, and then a professional genealogy researcher, speaker, and free-lance writer.  She has served at the BYU Family History Center for many years as a Consultant, Teacher, and Family History Missionary Trainer.  She has also served as a Ward Family History Consultant, Stake Family Records Extraction Coordinator, President of the Utah Valley Chapter of the Utah Genealogical Association, and Vice-President and Member of the Board of Directors of the Utah Genealogical Association.  Currently, she serves with the Utah Valley PAF Users Group teaching many classes there.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history.  As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise.  The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are the following:  (1)  FamilySearch Indexing and RecordSearch, by Duane Dudley;  (2)  LDS Databases, by Pat Andrus;  (3)  Mentoring and a New England mini-class, by Becky Roberts and Lynne Shumway in the FHC;  (4)  Q&A on the BYU Family History Library, by Laurie Castillo;  (5)  Video of last month's main presentation on Digital Photography for Family History, by Marlo Schuldt;  (6)  Legacy 7, by Joel Graham;  (7)  RootsMagic, by Bruce Buzbee; and  (8)  Ancestral Quest, by Gaylon Findlay.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not.  The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays.  Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Eileen Phelps, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Lynne Shumway, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD & Video Library, will all be there.  They will help with membership, questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past presentations and classes to members of the group.  Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org.  For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Elder Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Elder Donald R. Snow, 1st Vice President of Utah Valley PAF Users Group

Elder Donald R. Snow, England London Mission
London Family History Centre (formerly Hyde Park Family History Centre), http://www.hydeparkfhc.org
Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; snowd@math.byu.edu

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

[UVPAFUG] Press Release for UVPAFUG Meeting on 12 Jul 2008

2 Jul 2008

Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events. Ward newsletter editors, please include in your newsletters parts of the first paragraph and mention that there are classes for everyone. Email me if you need further information. Thanks.

Elder Snow


UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP
The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 12 Jul 2008, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by Marlo Schuldt on DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY IN FAMILY HISTORY. He will discuss things to look for in buying a digital camera, including the lens and a digital card reader. He will also discuss using your camera including fill-in flashes in the shade, candid photos, creating natural frames, getting clear pictures, panoramas, optical vs digital zoom, indexing your photos with GPS coordinates, getting in the picture yourself, shooting both stills and video with your digital camera, and using your camera to photograph documents that are too big to scan. Marlo Schuldt is President of LifeStory Productions, Inc., an Orem, Utah based company that develops family history software and provides assistance to individuals desiring to gather, prepare, print and share family history. He earned both BS and MS degrees from Brigham Young University in Communications. Mr. Schuldt is married with five children and 12 grandchildren and recently received a patent on Heritage Collector Software - see http://heritagecollector.com/ .

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are the following: (1) PAF 5 - Advanced Search, Custom Lists, Global Search & Replace, by Duane Dudley; (2) Mentoring: (mini class on British Research), by Vivian Brown; (3) LDS Databases, by Pat Andrus; (4) Video of last month's main presentation: Self Publish the Easy and Free Way, by Matt Misbach; (5) Ancestral Quest 12, by Gaylon Findlay; (6) Exploring Legacy 7, by Joel Graham; and (7) RootsMagic 3, by Bruce Buzbee.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Eileen Phelps, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Lynne Shumway, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD & Video Library, will all be there. They will help with membership, questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org . For further information contact
President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Elder Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.


Elder Donald R. Snow, 1st Vice President, Utah Valley PAF Users Group


Elder Donald R. Snow, England London Mission, London Family History Centre (formerly Hyde Park Family History Centre),
http://www.hydeparkfhc.org
Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo,
Utah; snowd@math.byu.edu

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

[UVPAFUG] Press Release for UVPAFUG meeting, 14 Jun 2008

4 Jun 2008

Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events. Ward newsletter editors, please include in your newsletters parts of the first paragraph and mention that there are classes for everyone. Email me if you need further information. Thanks.

Elder Snow


UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 14 Jun 2008, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by Matt Misbach on SELF-PUBLISH THE EASY AND FREE WAY. With recent advancements in technology in the publishing industry self-publishing is easier than ever, and is gaining tremendous popularity. This presentation will show you how to self-publish your book for FREE. The process is simple enough that anyone can do it. Matt Misbach is President of Misbach Enterprises, a genealogy company specializing in charting and publishing for over 40 years. Matt has developed several genealogy software programs, designed numerous pedigree and descendant charts, and has published the following books: The Griffiths Story, Jacob Persinger, The Van Der Kemp Collection, Jacob the Indian, and Misbachs In Mongolia.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are the following: (1) Documenting Sources in PAF and New Family Search, by Duane Dudley; (2) Using Footnote and Other FamilySearch Affiliates in Family History Centers, by Robert Raymond; (3) Stuck? Tips for Getting Unstuck, by Laurie Castillo; (4) Q&A on Self-Publish the Easy and Free Way, by Matt Misbach; (5) Individual Mentoring (and mini-class on Using Census Records at Heritage Quest for Free), by Larine Mortensen and RaeLee Steinacker; (6) Video - newFamilySearch Synchronization with Ancestral Quest, Family Insight, and RootsMagic by Gaylon Findlay, John Vilburn, & Bruce Buzbee; (7) Legacy 7: Charting, by Dean Bennett; and (8) RootsMagic, by Bruce Buzbee.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Eileen Phelps and Lynne Shumway, PAFology Editors; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill and Marie Andersen working with the DVD & Video Library, will all be there. They will help with membership, questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org . For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Elder Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Elder Donald R. Snow, 1st Vice President of Utah Valley PAF Users Group England London Mission, London Family History Centre (formerly Hyde Park Family History Centre)


Elder Donald R. Snow, England London Mission London Family History Centre (formerly Hyde Park Family History Centre), http://www.hydeparkfhc.org
Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo,
Utah; snowd@math.byu.edu

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

[UVPAFUG] Press Release for UVPAFUG meeting, Saturday, 2008-05-10

30 Apr 2008

Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events.  Ward newsletter editors, please include in your newsletters parts of the first paragraph and mention that everyone is invited.  Email me if you need further information.  Thanks.
Elder Snow


UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP
 The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 10 May 2008, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo.  The main presentation this time will be NEW FAMILYSEARCH SYCHRONIZATION WITH ANCESTRAL QUEST (Gaylon Findlay), FAMILY INSIGHT (John Vilburn), AND ROOTSMAGIC (Bruce Buzbee) .  These presenters are the primary authors of these programs and as such will be able to give us a really good overview of how their programs will work with New FamilySearch (NFS) which the LDS Church is releasing a few LDS Temple Districts at a time.  It is presently in operation in over 50 of the more than 125 Temple Districts of the Church and will be in more, if not all, by the end of 2008.  NFS is designed to fulfill President Gordon B. Hinckley's concern of how to make temple names submission simpler, while still avoiding duplication.  It is a massive effort by the LDS Church and has been many years in the planning and programming.  The LDS Church has encouraged private ventures to work on making their genealogy programs capable of synchronizing (communicating) with New FamilySearch.  In the case of Family Insight (new name for PAF Insight), the program allows PAF (Personal Ancestral File) databases to communicate with New FamilySearch.  This synchronization allows editing of New FamilySearch data, e.g. searching and combining names in NFS, as well as downloading data from NFS databases to update the patrons' personal genealogy database.  These are programs that Gordon J. Clarke referred to in his presentation when he mentioned third-party products to work with New FamilySearch as he spoke to the Utah Valley PAF Users Group a few months ago.  These presentations and questions and answers by the authors will take the entire time of this meeting, so there will be no classes this time.  Other programs to synchronize with NFS besides these three will undoubtedly be announced later, but these are the first.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not.  The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays.  Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Lynne Shumway, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Eileen Phelps, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD & Video Library, will all be there.  They will help with membership, questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past presentations and classes to members of the group.  Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org . For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Elder Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Elder Donald R. Snow, 1st Vice President of Utah Valley PAF Users Group
England London Mission
Hyde Park Family History Centre (soon to be renamed the London Family History Centre)



Elder Donald R. Snow, England London Mission
Hyde Park Family History Centre, http://www.hydeparkfhc.org
Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; snowd@math.byu.edu

FamilySearch Web Services and 3rd Party Products

9 Feb 2008

Introduction of Speaker by Brian Cooper
Main Presentation: Gordon Clarke – FamilySearch Web Services and 3rd Party Products

Gordon Clarke joined the Family and Church History Member Needs team over 2 years ago. He is coordinating Developer Services and Affiliate Marketing in addition to his product management responsibility for the FamilySearch Web Services. Previously Gordon was the founder and president of ici MEDIA. Over the last 25 years Gordon has organized and led numerous companies and projects, creating and delivering Internet, desktop computer, audio/video, and enterprise solutions for many different industries.

Gordon Clarke – FamilySearch Web Services and 3rd Party Products

I really enjoy users groups and have been a big advocate of software user groups. I worked with various software developers’ user groups in California and now in Utah I work with the Flex user group. Which is geek speak for flash developers that are using flash for enterprise or internet applications. There is some connection from that resent experience and what I am doing now at the Church developing a community for software developers that are working to interface with our new FamilySearch.

Web Services and 3rd Party Products - Web services is where a programmer can access a website. He does it through means different than just launching a browser. 3rd Party Products when you get right down to logic it should probably be second party products. 3rd Party Products is determined in the industry if you look at FamilySearch offering media services and they are offering it through another entity other than FamilySearch we call it 3rd Party. This presentation is going to be about our web services and now it is going to be made available and accessed to third parties.

To kick off the introduction to it I like to play two minutes of Sister Virginia Pierce talk at Presidents Hinckley’s funeral where she talked about “7 Generations”.

“In the year 1837 in the back country of Ontario, Canada, John E. Page preached the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Wearing the coat that Joseph Smith put on his back in Kirtland, Brother Page and his companion taught the gospel to the Hinckley and Judd families as well as many others. Lois Judd Hinckley, Gordon B. Hinckley’s great-grandmother was among those baptized. With her children and other family members she followed the saints south. By 1843 they found themselves in Springfield, Illinois. Her son Ira Nathaniel Hinckley now about 14 years of age found his way to Nauvoo. He became a skilled blacksmith and laborer, he married. In 1850 on their way to the Salt Lake valley cholera claimed Ira’s young wife and his half brother. He buried them himself on the same day. And he picked up his 11 month old baby and finished the journey.

Ira would spend the rest of his life answering the needs of a colonizing church. Cove Fort stands today as the product of his able workmanship and devotion. Ira Nathaniel’s son Bryant S. Hinckley, father of President Hinckley was an educator, teaching at the Brigham Young Academy and LDS Business College. He was president of the largest stake in the Church for many years. He knew heartache and faced challenges that would test the faith of the strongest saint but he never wavered in devotion to the Lord and his Church.

Speaking at a devotional at BYU in 1999 President Hinckley recalled “These three generations of my forebears who have been faithful in the Church.” Reflecting on their lives he said “I look down at my daughter and her daughter who is my grandchild and her children my great-grandchildren I suddenly realized that I stood right in the middle of these seven generations, three before me and three after me. And there passed through my mind a sense of tremendous obligation that was mine. To pass on all that I would receive as an inheritance from forebears to the generations that now come after me.” As part of those generations who have would come after him we thank him and our mother for the temple and strength of their wake between our forebears and us. Our parents loved us, they taught us, corrected us, laughed and prayed for and with us, we honor them. And we likewise pledge to pass on to future generations our complete devotion to the Savior and his Church.”

What this causes me to reflect about - I really like that 7 generation thing. Again every time I say something I am NOT making a Church announcement that we are going to have a seven generation program. When you get your three generations of descendants totally organized, picture and audio, and then you get your three generations above and put it in some electronic file and ship it to the Church. OK, I am not talking about a 7 generation program. I just want to highlight in your minds the idea that this is about family up and down. Hopefully that message comes across. Especially with the tools that are surfacing on the internet because not only can you learn about your living relatives and share information, and photos and divide up genealogy work. This work of trying to pull together the family both the living and the dead is really what we should be about at this time.

Third-party websites and desktop products are quickly making it possible to gather and share information about our deceased and living relatives. That is what I am thrilled about, third-party programs about desktop products and it’s also about web based applications. I am going to share how those can work together.

The press release went out just last week announcing the FamilySearch Developers Conference. We will talk a little bit about this; I will read two paragraphs about that. “FamilySearch announced today its first annual conference for the software and Web application developers. The 2008 FamilySearch Developers Conference will be held on Wednesday, March 12, 2008, in conjunction with the Brigham Young University Computerized Family History and Genealogy Conference in Provo, Utah. FamilySearch engineers and community developers will discuss new FamilySearch Web Services (API) and share best practices from its application to a variety of popular environments. Attendees can register online at http://FamilyHistoryConferences.byu.edu/familysearch.

FamilySearch now has a full platform for software developers – genealogy content, interfaces, tools, code, support and training. This platform enables developers to launch a new business or boost their target markets by adding features that are programmatically linked to FamilySearch’s expanding online resources. “Developers can produce solutions that integrate private, shared, and public data about living and deceased individuals, including rich stories, photos, audio, and video. FamilySearch is putting developers into the driver’s seat to do what they do best – effectively create and deliver innovative products wherever there is a need and profit,” said Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch Web Services Product Manager.

This idea of a platform is a tool so everybody is not waiting for the Church to come out with the next release of its next product. That the whole industry is working on - multiple products for multiple purposes that are sharing some common data amongst them so everybody develops. I put together this little diagram (stadium) that this platform is not just one stadium it’s a league. I call it the FSGL – FamilySearch Genealogy League. It’s a league and hopefully as big organizations join with us you will have multiple teams and multiple spectators and multiple players. It will be more of a united work that can happen.

Our Wildly Important Declaration
Provide to Software Developers
The Family History Platform of Choice
Technology and Content
Developer Services
Marketing Assistance

My objectives have been in creating this platform is to provide the technology. The FamilySearch group has done a great job on providing content. By content you have heard about new FamilySearch - the all new centralized database that is working on a master family tree. You may have heard about Record Search this is where online you will view the complete archives of the granite vault. It will take about 6 years to get all those microfilms digitized but all of that is going online.

Developer Services I will share a little bit later on what we are doing to make it easier for software developers to make new product. Then, lastly how we can help encourage the development of new product so that there is a financial incentive for this league of software developers.

I made mention about the March 12th Developers Conference. That is a day before the Tech Workshop, which is the day before the two days Family History Computerized Genealogy Conference. At the Tech workshop we are going to have the people that we have products that we have been working with - that interface with new FamilySearch. That was going to be more of a tech talk - it is if their difficulties or methodologies interface with NFS. Then at the Computerized Conference, Friday the fourteenth we are going to have a Product Showcase, so that the early adopters of this interface will be able to show their ability to search NFS and draw associations to choose to synchronize their data with our data. It is all happening the week of March 12th. I am personally quit excited it is a beginning of a new era, I think, in sharing the development of software products and data.

So What About PAF?
I start right out I am talking to a PAF User Group. What About PAF? What I can say, what I won’t say, what I can say. No! I am only going to tell you what I can say. What I can say is:
PAF
- FamilySearch is very focused on the successful roll-out and maintenance of the New FamilySearch website.
-Support of PAF 5.2 application will continue for many years into the future.
-There are many software companies working on products that will be compatible with the PAF file and the New FamilySearch.
-Some individuals and companies are working on New FamilySearch compatible products using the PAF Add-In Software Development Kit with the New FamilySearch Web Services (API).

The NFS compatible products use something that I’m responsible for and our department has been shipping for four or five years. It’s what’s called a Software Development Kit and this Software Development Kit gives examples and instruction and sample code so that software developers can create files that create programs that read and write PAF. An example of that is Ohana Software they use the PAF SDK, the shorten version, to make their product. The other organization that is very familiar with the reading and writing of PAF is Ancestral Quest. In fact Ancestral Quest is going to be presenting at the Developers Conference how to use the PAF SDK to store information that is capable with NFS.

Right there before I go on let me tackle the questions so they don’t brew. Does anyone have questions about PAF and then I will move on.
(Answers only)
-SDK is a term in the industry for Software Development Kit. It is given to programmers so they know how to write compatible programs with the PAF file format.
- I will make comments about Legacy when I give a complete list later on. They were one of our early affiliates. We worked with about ten of them before opening the doors to anybody else. That smaller group was very, very helpful and successful in getting this interface done.
-Support is looked at more in a training and systems support.
-The question is in layman’s term is somebody does product using the SDK what does that mean. The PAF application has a menu that goes across the top. And in that menu across the top when you click on it, it gives a drop down or a sub-menu. The first thing that PAF SDK does is show people how to put new menu items in that tools sub-menu. In that sub-menu they can call their program that will read and write to the same data on the file disk that the PAF application is writing to. So you as a user will seem like you are using one product because it is in the menu and it is writing to the same data the other menu items are writing to. So that means that they can integrate their application add-on with the PAF product.
- Let me clarify that Ohana Software is the company name; PAF Insight is the product name. So if you are familiar with PAF Insight they definitely will have a NFS compatible upgrade or product. I can’t make announcements for them in detail but I know they have been working with this. I have seen their demonstrations.
- I can say from my stand point, looking at what is happening in the Third Party market place there is wonderful solutions. Whether or not if the Church will decide to do something new with PAF I cannot comment. The future has unknowns in it.
- I would direct you to a website which is DevNet.FamilySearch.org.
- I can speak for myself and my endeavors that I am seeing wonderful solutions in the third-party market place. Subjects about what the Church will or will not do in the future is that the future has unknowns.
-FamilyTree Maker – the question we paused on here was PAF. Do we have any more PAF questions or I will move on with web services so you can understand how Third-Party Products can access NFS.
- He said that he is aware of a knowledge document that in the cases for questions about PAF’s future might answer some of these questions. He is going to route that to me because I was not aware of exactly what that knowledge document says.

What is a Web Service?
I kind of gave you a preview of Web Services. FamilySearch is making it possible for many existing and new software products to work in conjunction with New FamilySearch through the use of Web Services.

Software developers, programmers, web masters, or “computer geeks” will be excited to hear about FamilySearch Web Services. If you are one of these, want to become one, know one, are married to one, or have a son or daughter that is one, tell them about FamilySearch Web Services and the Developers Conference.

(He showed a video of “Got the Knack?” a Dilbert cartoon.)

The point was that engineers are a special wonderful class, but they always talk a different language than we do. They have motives that might be different than our motives. That’s my market place. Again, spread the word if you potential one of these geeks, or someone that has the knack. Tell them about what we are doing at FamilySearch Web Services.

How I have to go a little bit into geek talk. I want to do it slow so I can learn if these concepts can be learned by the everyday genealogist. I have been told that the majority of you have been working with computers for a long time.

Simple concepts – Web Services makes it possible to programmatically exchange data with a website. To talk to a website and get data back. So we have a website representing the FamilySearch Tree and we have a product. The way it talks to it is it sends a list of letters. http://api.familysearch.org/familytree/v1/person/N9CR-1M7 And you many have seen these letters coming and going in the location bar the address bar of your browser. I won’t go into it but it is readable. What you get back is a bunch of data that is in a format called XML. The reason that is helpful is that it separates all that information so that a programmer can say “Ah, I can write a program that will know what to do with this so it can be displayed on your screen and action can be taken upon it. If you have ever heard of HTML, XML is a Mark-up language that programmers like; it is more machineable if you will than HTML.

(He shows an example of what can be returned in making search into the New FamilySearch web services.) In HTML if you have seen it you have seen the little brackets, the greater than and the less than sign. Those are what isolate these various words so they give meaning to them rather than just have a sentence. So it kind of chops up the sentence so programmers can know what those words are. Basically this is showing the hierarchal order of how information comes out of our NFS. That they are the person, person ID, there is the information about the person, with the gender, the living, alternative arches and the assertions.

This system is all about assertions that relates to the event. Because it has this beginning and ending descriptions programmers can get that text and write a program that knows what to do with it and what the organization is, what assertions is associated with what person and what events are associated with that person. I won’t go into this format just saying that XML is the easiest programming data to read. They translate this easy data into stuff that is even more complicated than this.

Remaining Agenda
FamilySearch
-New FamilySearch
-The “Pipeline”
-FamilySearch Family Tree & Record Search
Cross-linking (“ornamenting the tree”)
Third-Parties
-Why use Third-Parties
-Third-party Products
-Developer Services
-Affiliate Programs
Questions

FamilySearch
-DBA for Genealogy Society of Utah (GSU) sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
-Branding used for Family History products and services

I am training myself to use FamilySearch as we moving more to a non-member market place. To say FamilySearch and in effect that is the organization that I work for. For branding purpose FamilySearch is what we are going to use for everything dealing with genealogy.

www.familysearch.org
-Website for searching and sharing family history information
-Online repository for genealogical records
-Website for learning about and accessing resources from the Family History Library

new.familysearch.org
-New website with a combined, collaborative family tree
-The “new” will go away after more data and features are added to it.

Back last June for certain temple districts those that heard about it saw new.familysearch.org. If you were in that temple district you were able to actually register. We have been rolling-out to the temple districts, there are over 20 now. More and more people are able to access the new.familysearch.org. What I wanted to highlight was that eventually the “new” will go away.

And the process of that is www.familysearch.org an then we have the new.familysearch.org, the new.familysearch.org will be a new program that we have to move data from new resources to and data from the FamilySearch website to. So it has been all combined together. If you go to search by index on the www.familysearch.org you can search by Ancestral File, IGI and other sources. Those have all been merged together on the NFS with the addition of membership historical information and temple historical information. So that is all in one place now and the beauty of the new online system is we will get on going updates from temple activity and from membership activity.

If you are online in your district and your ward person is on the ball and they are recording deaths or baptisms on a regular basis they will show up on the website for those that have the right to see it. If you go through the new process and take the names to the temple because of these on going updates, it is an immediate update really, they get entered in at the temple then the activity that happens at the temple will be recorded on the website.

Before I move onto how programs are moving to locations are there any general comments about all this data being put on the new.familysearch.org. (Answers only)
-Pedigree Resource File had a big merge and then there are some ongoing updates that go to it.
-There would be I think at some point storagement for members to submit to PRF they should be submitting to the new system, because then you have access to it. You should go to the new system directly then trying to get it to go to PRF.
-I will talk about all that new additional data further on in the conversation.
- When will the Wasatch Front get NFS – before the end of the year and it might be sooner.

There is the first look at the data – now we have new features being added to NFS. Every three months we go through new features. Hopefully on this new website before the end of the year we might see indexing on new website. Records Search on the new website.

So there will be new programs accessing new data on the new website. This last screen shows that when the work is all done that they get everything that we need onto the new system what will happen is the old system will fade away. The new system will drop off its “new dot”. That is the progression we are going through in a very simple way.

Back to your question about the data – we call it “The Pipeline”. There are crews all over the world that are digitizing information with cameras. That is coming in to online systems through many, many value added processes. That is why we call it “The Pipeline”. The microfilm out of the libraries it is estimated that six or seven years all microfilm will be digitized and available online.

A third area is that we are teaming up with what is called “Record Access Affiliates”. I will give you more clarification on this later. Record Access Affiliates partner with us and people that actually have the data, whether it is a national archive or a genealogy society. To help them get their information digitized and online. So we are in the roll of working with third parties to help additional records get online beyond what we’re digitizing ourselves either through crews that go out or working at the granite vault.

The big part of this is the online index. How many of you have used the FamilySearch Indexing? Great! We plan to expand that volunteer force since about 150,000 now we’re hopeful to reach a million volunteers doing it. Because if you can imagine all this data that is being put online. It needs to be indexed to be searchable. Not to call it a bottle neck, but I will call it a very, very important step in this pipeline is the indexing of information. There are ways to index it for fast retrieval to at least get people to the image and then there is a way to get all the vital information off of those records so that you have a more detailed search capability.

That will make all that stuff that has been indexed make it available through this word called “Record Search”. Record Search you can see working on labs.familysearch.org. I will show you that URL a little bit later. That is where you can see what is coming, were we are prototyping, getting feedback before we actually release it to the Church at large. But there you can see the records search application. I will show you some samples of it. So if you look at the two worlds I am suggesting here the records world and the tree world it is part of the pipeline. Through the goodness of all the work of people that have drawn conclusions about lineages and have submitted that to us and then all of you that are going to be working on the NFS we are going to expand the availability of not only the number of names that we just search but how they are related and build that tree.

The next one is build the tree and draw the conclusions online so that people can share that information and discuss it and collaborate about it. Then on the back end we have a very, very large preservation effort. What that pipeline that I come back to is these two areas – Records Search and new Family Tree. Before I move on any questions about the difference between these two areas?
-I will show you in the next slide. The question was how do you get stuff out of Records Search into new Family Tree?
-Yes, that is what I call cross-linking internally.

Family Tree you have seen the demos you’ve been to presentations. You might have been on beta a couple of times. So you have a sense of what Family Tree is. (Common Pedigree, Identify Relatives, Reduce Duplication, Collaboration) Here is the look of it (shows slides).

Then Records Search is based upon Records (electronic information), Images (digital captured records) and Collections (Census and Lists, Migration, Military, Court and Legal Records and Vital Records). If you go to labs.familysearch.org you will see screens like this where you can search information, get back reports that you can re-filter and re-sort to narrow in and find people that might be your relative or might be somebody that you are researching. So that’s Records Search

Now if you need to correlate data between two websites either you do it manually or if you have web services both directions a program could be written that will bring the both in. What I am looking at here is the idea of what we call it an Affiliate Product. We have a certification program so that if an Affiliate Product is searching the records search, get the information so that that product can be used to review that data and associate it with their local database then that information in the future will be able to put into NFS not all the information, the image doesn’t go all the way through, not all the detail data is going to go all the way through, but probably enough to say what the information is and what person does it relate to and how do I get additional information. So with that in the Family Tree then the Family Tree will go back to their original online source if you want to get the image and additional information. So that way everybody doesn’t need to get a copy of everything they are concerned about they just have to keep a save and remember how to look it up to get the additional information.

Question was asked and response: Hopefully having the family tree as your back bone that’s where you are looking to see where that is happening and where the duplicates are to know where you are at. Where do you see the merging happening? Let me review a little bit about the family tree.

The Family Tree is collaborative non-destructive environment. Presently on the family tree everyone body opinion is valid. Nobody gets to be the authority to say you’re right and I’m wrong. In that case the word merge in what you may think about it in a desktop product goes away. You can’t put two records together. You can associate them, look at them different ways but you won’t be able to put them together. There is no destructive merge on the collaborative tree. You get to see what everybody thinks.

Questions (Answers only)
-The issue here is more so than the ID. There is lots of reasons for alternate IDs. The real issue here and I need to couch this that this presentation is not about NFS or the web application. The point here is every contributor is associated to a fact. You can have ten contributors that are saying this person was born on 10 different dates. That will all show up in the Family Tree.
-She explained what Ancestry.com is doing it is a valuable feature and certainly that makes sense in our world too. The current web app doesn’t allow you to automatically search and find things in Records Search. That is definitely the plan so that you can be navigating the tree and look up sources and associate that source with my person then have the tree remember that or a third party product looking both directions at once can do the same thing.
-What we are finding is that it is better to push the responsibility to individual patron the contributor to decide if two people are the same people or if a source is actually tied to that person. Those decisions of what sources and who should be combined more times or not through the elaborate combining work we went to, now we are to the point any additional combining with association to sources is going to be the patrons that do it.
-FamilySearch is the umbrella there are multiple applications. The first application we released is called New FamilySearch it really is a Family Tree application. The second application we are going to release is going to be Records Search and then you have already seen the internet indexing that hasn’t been integrated into this new environment. So there will be multiple applications that can work stand alone, then they can share information amongst themselves. That is the direction we are going.
-We can do a ranking and third party products share our ranking and they do their ranking. There are all sorts of tools to help people decide who is a match and who isn’t. Then place your vote and push that up to the new system.
- You can contest information, disagreement or dissertation what ever word you like. But you can say I think you are wrong so to speak, have your notes and why and please get in touch with me. That frees the collaboration circle.

This idea of cross-linking can happen between two, third-party products. We want to facilitate it happening between a more uniform way; so that the sharing of genealogy information can go through not only our two or three website applications but with other third party website applications, and for the purpose of ornamenting the tree so to speak.

The new FamilySearch Family Tree has its first type of cross-linking in that it will display on a Google map all of the events of a person you are looking at. The map is not coming from our website the map is coming from Google’s website.

Rich media, Geo-mapping, Family Communities, other people and trees, richer information about the place and topics, Research Collaboration - This is the directions but I can’t tell you when it all will come together. We will give you announcements are they come up, but this is the direction we are going. The internet is wonderful to share information and associate that information even though it might be coming from multiple vendors and multiple websites.

What About PAF?
Who are some of our current Web Service Affiliates? Desktop Applications that read PAF Files.
-Ancestral Quest*
-Generation Maps
-Millennium (Legacy)
-Ohana Software (PAF Insight)*
-Progeny (PAF Companion)
-Roots Magic
-RC Martin (Has not released a product but has been working with us and will sometime release a product that does read PAF.)
Note: *These programs will Read and Write PAF files compatible with New FamilySearch.

One thing to note this idea of connecting to NFS means you are going to have to do a new process. You are going to have to search, you going to have to compare, you are going to have to say the person that is on NFS is my person in PAF, draw that relationship however the programs does it. You can’t just plug in a PAF add-in and have it work magically with NFS. You’ve got to decide the people in that local database are in NFS and which ones aren’t, then push up the new ones or just link the ones that are the same one. If the information changes then you have the choice to push up the new information or keep it local. So it is a new paradigm to look at your own little horde so to speak and then the stuff that you share and contribute to the master family tree. Many of these products I see give you the choice of what you share and what you don’t share and how you update your local system with what is happening in the shared community.

Who are some of our current Web Service Affiliates?
-Family Pursuit
-Living Genealogy
-World Vital Records
-GeneTree (Sorenson Media)
-US FamilyTree
-Bungee Labs
-One Great Family
-Find My Past
-The Generation Network (Ancestry.com)

The next list is of people that already have websites that have additional services. They are working with us so that if you are looking at the master tree we are working as a backbone for this correlation that is going on. They are looking to work with us so they know who our people are, you put a media or biography or stuff up on their website for certain people then it can all come together for a common viewing of that.

Family Pursuit is a hosting service specifically to genealogy which has a collaboration element so that you can talk to other family members about what is on that website. Living Genealogy similar situation. GeneTree is an interesting situation, Sorenson Media just announced their new website which they are going to associate DNA information from one of their websites with people information and with our tree and rich media. So that way hopefully these applications will come so that you can on your system look up a person and go hey where can I see additional information about that person in whatever format that it is. The richness of learning about your relatives is what makes us more sensitive to them and is part of the spirit of Elijah but also a part of your own experience of learning about your relatives, or learning about your living relatives. Many of these hosting sites will work for living people of deceased people it is family collaboration.

Looking at this initial list remember it next month is when we are starting to say hey software developers lets give us your best creativity. We are just starting to roll out this idea and these interfaces and the desire to create more applications.

Any questions about these two lists about affiliates that have been working with us to learn how to read and write the NFS through web services? (answers only)
-We feel a responsibility for certain features to give a certification status and a logo that relates to that. That process has not been completed with any of these products. We think most of these early adopters are going to be certified. But there will be a certification process so that we can give you some level of confidence that the product features will work as they are intended to and that we are aware of them and we know how they work. We are not going to say which product from a users stand point is better than another. But we will have a bear minimum standard to say which product we are ok with.
-Later on I will tell you what a Record Access Affiliate is. Footnote is a very meaningful Records Access Affiliate. They haven’t yet decided to consume our web services.
-At the Developers Conference we have libraries for Macintosh developers to have them write programs that interface into NFS.
-We are working with companies based in Europe in one of the slides was Find My Past. This is just the beginning to get the starter team together so that we open it up to more. We are just barely starting.

Why Use Third-parties
For a desktop application?
-Integration between Records Search and Family Tree
-Interface that appeals to different audiences
--Age groups
--Genealogical or computer experience
--Counties and cultures (internationalization)
-Ability to work with data offline
-Maintain private, living, and research data as you desire.

For a web application?
-Share with others
-Work with “living” data
-Handle rich content (stories, photos, audio/video)
-Interact with other contributors more effectively

It’s one way of intergrading between multiple web services. It makes it possible for software developers to target different audiences. That audience might be an interface that belongs to their computer experience or genealogy experience, language, cultural difference. We want to have all the data roll up and be available to everybody to that they can find their family connections. We are not looking at creating a separate software program for all target markets out there that we see.

This group has been wonderful you have one program that we created a long time ago and it was kind of like one program for all people for all reasons. As you find you have all learned by these users groups of how to stretch it and use it for your needs and work around. By opening this up there will be more products out there, smart developers, smart companies will find special niches and they will make products that are specific to those niches.

The ability to work with data offline is available things which you are used to. Some people love the website orientation where no matter where they are just go to the web if they can get to a computer they can go to our website and they can do their searches, and decisions and make it happen. There are other people that like to deal with bigger volumes of data where they want to download a lot of data, look it over at the time, make decisions and then commit those changes onto the server. The sometimes connected model - a lot of people like that. Many of you are in a situation where you may have never been connected. In a very simple way the PAF product does allow you to do searches to NFS so that is very similar to this situation.

Answer to questions asked:
-The pipeline that I showed you in the very beginning we have tremendous amount of effort. It’s kind of like if we are focused on getting records accessible that is a big enough effort it itself. To try to create a product that delivers all those things to different audiences it is too much for us. One of our biggest focuses is the Granite Vault, working with third-parties for all the different records custodians as we call them, in whatever form they might be, they might be libraries, national archives, to digitize all that stuff there is a major, major effort going on and will continue to get billions and billions of names online over the next ten years.
- He is referring to the way we are going about working with various record custodians. We do what is called a request for information. So we might target certain censuses, certain archives and we say hey who wants to join our team in putting these collections online. Then we put together a team and then we sign contracts and we go to work. Those types of announcements you will see again, and again, and again of new projects started to digitized and put information online.
- A few years ago a lot of the contracts that where identified and most that I have heard about have been renegotiated for these types of electronic rights. So there is a major, major effort started even before I came to the Church two years ago to renegotiate the rights of a lot of this stuff. There is so much work to do if there’s 10 percent that we don’t have rights to right now things might change later. 10 percent I am not quoting I am just saying for instance. There is plenty of work to team up with the market place and our team to digitize.

Why a desktop application through a third-party? This idea of providing your own research your private data and living data and choosing, there are two worlds here, choosing what you want to share and what you want to keep local. As people get more and more into this and understand more how the collaborative experience works I think they will find that they will want to share more and more. They will start to find that the more they share the more other people will share and the more there will be available. This is how communities get built. Contributing to the whole will benefit you individually. But it is a little bit of a different thinking that people have been working on in their one database at times. We are hopeful that this paradigm shift will change.

Why for a web application? The big thing is here is a way to share electronically. A subject matter that you share electronically everybody can look at it and benefit from it. There are some web services that allow you to opt in. Opt in means it’s an option - are you sure you want other people to see this data? Do you want them to see under these conditions or not. Third party websites can let you make all sorts of choices of how they allow people to see the data. We have some restrictions that are historical that doesn’t make the Church’s merger data as open as we would like it. So there will be other websites might be able to share other data that might be more open that ours. So there is going to be a value of having these online resources because it means more possibilities are going to be available to identify your ancestors.

Lastly the whole idea is there are many, many websites just starting up that allow you to collaborate with living people interested in the same subject matter, whether they are relatives or they are just interested in the same line, people and places. That’s the beauty of the website it’s coordinating and collaborating with living people about the deceased. We see lots of things happening in that area there is very, very fast growth.

My role is to get more developers involved in this work and more companies involved in this work. You may have seen similar things happening on other websites that are out there.

Compared FlickR, Yahoo, Amazon, Ebay and Google to what FamilySearch will have all of: Registration, Email / List Servers, Forums, FAQs, Knowledgebase, Newsletter, Blog, Documentation, Sample Code, Client Toolkits, Sandbox Testing, and Support

FlickR has web services so that you can pull pictures and everybody that you want to can see the pictures. Because there is a web service there you can have that exchange happen from your program and the website. Yahoo has its web services as do Amazon, and EBay have their web services. You can use the web applications but there are lots of third parties that have created applications that have a different look and feel, but they are getting at the same data. That is the focus of offering web services it is to make the data available and then have people compete to make up various products that expose that data. Google you’ve all seen Google Maps like Map Quest.

So we’ve seen and my job is to see what’s out there and to make the decisions of what to offer the market place to attach software developers that are interested in genealogy and software development. So that means we have a community we need to create. Where they register, join, they talk to each other, they share their experiences, it’s like an online users group. Just like to all do here. Newsletter, blogs, documentation, sample codes, we want to have this website which is started at devnet.familysearch.org. This is where software developers for major commercial companies, individuals or students at university can get together and talk about projects and learn how to write code that will talk to these web services.

Developer Services
-Websites
--Tech.LDS.org
--Labs.FamilySearch.org
--DevNet.FamilySearch.org
-Support
--Dedicated email address
--Dedicated toll-free phone number

Tech.LDS.org – A community that has LDS programmers get together and talk about things that are happening in the Church in regards to programming and projects that are happening whether or not it is genealogy based, or family history based.

Labs.FamilySearch.org is family history based it is where we show applications and ideas that we are working on, prototypes of new interfaces. If you go there now you will see what used to be called the Pedigree Viewer is being called the Family Tree, there’s a Life Browser, Records Search is there and eventually we will have a new look, where you can go as well to FamilySearch Indexing.

Support – we have developers support isolated from world-wide support and if you call in and ask for developers services you will get routed to people that understand our API and learning more about it everyday. API is geek speak for web services it stands for Application Program Interface. So you are able to interface with the application that is on server programmatically. Web services is a general one that you may have heard that we are usually talking about geek speak as an API. For those that qualify there will be a toll-free phone number to assist developers in working on their projects.

Web Service Affiliates Program
Marketing
-Marketing incentives
-Church announcements
-Press releases and Industry announcements
-Web marketing activities
-Featured Affiliate product articles
-Affiliate Column in FHC Newsletter
-Benefits according to Affiliate Level
-New FamilySearch exposure
-Trademarks, Logo, and Link Logo Plan
-Certified Features listing

For the marketing incentives we are starting to prepare some press releases of things that are happening. The first one was the Developers’ Conference. As products are going to be released from third parties we are going to certify them and announce which products are certified. Press releases, emails, posting on websites - whole lists of things that developers find very valuable and encourage them to develop new products so that they can get some mind share of the market place.

Possible Web Service Affiliates
-DESKTOP INSTALLED BASE
--Additional Genealogy Software Vendors
--PAF User Groups
--PAF Add-In Developers
-ONLINE CONTENT PROVIDERS
--Living data
--Rich Media
--Collaborative Communities
--Images and Records Services
-OPEN SOURCE DEVELOPERS
--LDS Open Source Developers
--Ruby, PHP, Java, Perl
--Open Source developers at large
-ADOBE DEVELOPERS (Flash, Flex)
-MS.NET DEVELOPERS (VB.net, XAML, WPF, WPF-E, ASP.net)

My market place is not geographical in a sense it is North America right now, but I can find these geeks different places. They hover around existing software or certain software languages. You may of heard of Open Source, Open Sources developers have different languages they will like, be it Perl, PHP and there are all these buzz words out there. Then there are those developers that are following what Adobe is doing and those developers that are following what Microsoft is doing. So I’m looking for the cross-over between people that are Church oriented or family history oriented and they like programming or have been in the software business. Those are the type of people that were looking for to assist them in creating or improving products.

Types of Affiliates
Web Service Affiliates – Affiliates that create desktop or web products to access FamilySearch Web Services such as Family Tree API and Records Search API
Record Access Affiliates – Third party organizations that assist FamilySearch in helping records custodian provide online access to their collections.
Family History Center Affiliates – Their products or services can be used for free by FHC patrons, who may then choose to purchase them for home use.

Right now we have three different types of affiliates. I’m focusing on affiliates that are going to be consuming our web services; they are going to be using our web services. Then there are the affiliates that are assisting us in putting records online. They’re called Record Access Affiliates. You will see press releases about record access affiliates as projects are determined and they sign up for it. Then there is a third area you may have heard about which is a Family History Center Affiliate. These are affiliates, that could either be the two above; that have agreed to offer their product or website through a Family History Center for three years. An announcement has gone on about that. It is a joint thing they get special PR and then we get for patrons free products in our Family History Centers. So those are the three types of programs and agreements and affiliates that we have. My focus is really the top one and then the bottom one is a service that can be offered from the web service affiliates.

Questions and Answers
-Security – We have a higher standard than many of the websites out there. We have studied the techniques. All the big websites have a lot at risk and their techniques to prevent security be it Google, be it EBay with a financial interest, the banks, we have studies all and we are implementing secure measures so that this environment will be able to work between us and other vendors.
-Images – we are hopeful as the volunteer marketing of indexing expands that we will keep up.
-Affiliate collections are owned by companies. We will not make arrangements with organizations unless the indexes the important information, is available for FamilySearch. We want information to a point to flow freely. Now these third parties need their profit incentives and they also want traffic, so there is a payoff here getting the most amount of traffic by what you offer for free verses when you get to the point that you are going to have to charge. Some companies are looking at making everything for free except the actual original image. Other companies looking at a summary citation so vital information about the people will be on the record but if you want to get more detail information you will have to pay. There will become, now the Church won’t make you pay, but for some third parties there will be that level that this is free, this is free, and then you will have to pay.
-A big part of this records access program is not only to make all of our data freely available but to have a business strategy method to encourage other parties to make more available. We wouldn’t be endeavoring to do this unless we felt very strongly that we have a case to get more information available from third parties.
-We are teaming up together with Footnote.com. They are one of our earliest record access affiliates. We are thrilled with the amount of information that membership is going to get from that arrangement. That is a wonderful example of a very positive arrangement with organizations that knows how to index and understands this world. That’s going to make a lot of this information available with the members. There was a press release from the Church about Footnote.
- We will have the records portions of that online before the end of the year, through the roll-out of our Records Search application. So Records Search will be here before the end of the year. If you want to look at it you can go to lab.familysearch.org and see how that all works. That will start showing stuff from Footnote, our archives, the digitization efforts that we are doing with our Church owned teams, we have an enterprise of members and non-member and Church and non-church people working on getting stuff digitized.
-Cindy’s List is and Information Portal about genealogy. She is linking to all sorts of resources and gathering some of that herself. I don’t know how she fits into this presentation. She is a website that has chosen to gather information about lots of other websites, lots of other resources she is kind of like an online genealogy portal. She is not building a master family tree, and she is not tamped into the actual owners of records. She is on the web providing a great, great service but doesn’t really fit into this. I don’t see it anyways.
-Have any of your programmer friends drop by DevNet.FamilySearch.org short for developers network have them sign up and register. That is how we communicate with developers.
-The majority of all these applications focus on how do you find the matches and make it easy to combine people to reduce the duplication. So you will find that is a big part of our certification is how do they do the matching and combining. That is a very important process and you are going to find a lot of competition in the interface of how that happens. Have any of you used PAF Insight this comparison I think will work for you. You notice how you have your local data being compared to what’s on the IGI. You got it on the right side and on the left side. What I am seeing now is not the combining of the IGI data with your local PAF but what’s happening now is you’re looking at a list of the person you are concerned about, a list of all the duplicates and that same comparison method you get to in group one by one and I’ve seen different application in how it will help you through that process for you to say this person is the same as all those people. So a major component of all these third party applications is the matching of duplicates on the family trees so you can actually tie it together.

This presentation is available on DVD #135 for UVPAFUG members to borrow or purchase.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Press Release for UVPAFUG meeting, 12 Apr 2008

2 Apr 2008

Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events. Ward newsletter editors, this Sunday is General Conference, so most of you won't be having newsletters, but if you do, please include in them parts of the first paragraph and mention that there are classes for everyone. Email me if you need further information. Thanks.

Elder Snow


UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP
The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 12 Apr 2008, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by Prof. Larry EchoHawk on SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS FROM KNOWING MY NATIVE AMERICAN ANCESTORS. He will describe his journey in searching for his Native-American ancestors, preparing their names for temple ordinances, and gaining a deeper appreciation of his Native American heritage. All of this involved many avenues of research including the Internet and the Family History Library. His wife Terry is also an avid genealogist and helped with this research. There is a good article about Professor EchoHawk in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_EchoHawk . He was born in Cody, Wyoming, raised in Farmington, New Mexico, and attended Brigham Young University on a football scholarship, then received his Juris Doctor degree in 1973 from the University of Utah. He practiced law in Salt Lake City and in 1977 became the General Legal Counsel for the Fort Hall, Idaho-based, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. He is a member of the Pawnee Tribe and was the first Native American elected to a constitutional statewide office, serving as Attorney General of Idaho from 1991 to 1995. Currently he is a Professor of Criminal Law at BYU's J Reuben Clark Law School and presides over the BYU 7th Stake. He resides in Orem with his wife, Terry, and they are the parents of 6 children with 20 grandchildren. On 7 Aug 2007 he gave the BYU Devotional talk about his conversion and his heritage and a copy of that talk is posted online at the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies at http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=jbms&id=435 . You can also listen to that devotional at http://ldsfiles.com/newforums/ldsfiles-com-talk-repository/4598-byu-devotional-unexpected-gift.html .

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are the following: (1) PAF5: Using Preferences, by Lila Sowards; (2) Using Google in Genealogy, by Duane Dudley; (3) Managing Genealogy Information Using PHPGedView (class 3 of 3), by John Finlay; (4) Q&A on his presentation by Larry EchoHawk; (5) Individual Mentoring by Pat Andrus & Claudia Benson (including a German Internet Research mini class); (6) Video of last month's main presentation on The Future of Family History Centers, by Don Anderson; (7) Legacy, by Joel Graham; (8) Ancestral Quest, by Gaylon Findlay; and (9) RootsMagic, by Bruce Buzbee.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers will be there, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Lynne Shumway, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Eileen Phelps, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD & Video Library. They will help with membership, questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org and on their blog at http://blog.uvpafug.org/ . For additional information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Elder Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Elder Donald R. Snow, 1st Vice President of Utah Valley PAF Users Group
England London Mission, Hyde Park Family History Centre


Elder Donald R. Snow, England London Mission
Hyde Park Family History Centre, http://www.hydeparkfhc.org
Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; snowd@math.byu.edu

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

[UVPAFUG] Press release for UVPAFUG meeting 2008-03-08

27 Feb 2008


Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events. Ward newsletter editors, please include in your newsletters parts of the first paragraph and mention that there are classes for everyone. Call or email me if you need further information. Thanks.

Elder Snow


UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP
The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 8 Mar 2008, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by Don Anderson on THE FUTURE OF FAMILY HISTORY CENTERS. Will the number of FHC's stay the same or will there be fewer or more in the future? With all the microfilms digitized and online what will be the purpose of FHC's? Or will all the films be online? What about the ones the Church doesn't have the copyright permission to post? Will everyone have a computer at home and know how to use it? Will there be a "Computer Specialist" called in each ward to help those with no computers or computer expertise? Who will teach the Church members how to do genealogy research when their lines get past the easy-to-find names? Will the purpose of FHC's shift? These are some of the questions we hope to hear considered by our speaker, Don Anderson at this meeting. Don R. Anderson is the Director of the Worldwide Support Services Division of the Family and Church History Department of the LDS Church. In this role Don has responsibility to provide help to individuals searching for their ancestors using family history department software and services as well as support for family history centers and priesthood leaders worldwide. Prior to his employment with the Department, Don was the Vice-President of Operations in Technical Support Services for the Convergys Customer Management Group. Don studied Business Administration at Weber State University. He is married to the former Anne Russell and they are the parents of two boys.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are the following: (1) Searching for Completed Ordinances in the Internet IGI and in New FamilySearch, by Duane Dudley; (2) Internet Q & A, by Laurie Castillo; (3) Administering a PHPGedView Web Site, by John Finlay; (4) Individual Mentoring in the FHC by Claudia Benson and a mini-class there on Improve Your Census Searches, by Rae Lee Steinacker; (5) Q&A on the Future of FHC's, by Don Anderson; (6) Video of last month's main presentation on FamilySearch Web Services and 3rd Party Applications, by Gordon Clarke; (7) Legacy, by Joel Graham. There will be NO Ancestral Quest nor RootsMagic classes this month.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Lynne Shumway, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Eileen Phelps, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD & Video Library, will all be there. They will help with membership, questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org . For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Elder Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Elder Donald R. Snow, 1st Vice President of Utah Valley PAF Users Group
England London Mission, Hyde Park Family History Centre

Elder Donald R. Snow, England London Mission
Hyde Park Family History Centre, http://www.hydeparkfhc.org
Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; snowd@math.byu.edu


Monday, February 18, 2008

Digital Photography for Genealogy by Barry Ewell

12 Jan 2008

You can request a PDF of the Presentation and related materials by email to: bj57barry@msn.com, subject line: Digital Photography. This will include about a 200 page document about photography and scanning. There is a combination between the two and we bring them together. The same principles I use in photography I also use in scanning.

Defining Digital Imaging
The Digital Advantage versus Film Advantage
Film camera use film
-Reoccurring film costs.
-Processing costs. Wasted shots.
-Full rolls of film to expose before you can see any of the pictures.
-Film expiration dates to worry about.
-Necessity of protective film bags when passing through airport security.
-Negatives or slides to scratch or collect dust

After exposing a roll of film
-You have to reload the film camera.
-Take the exposed film to be developed.
-Pick it up and hope you have the pictures you wanted.

We all used film. I don’t know about you but my slide collection I am proud of it. Its in boxes and boxes. There is color film that you like and you try to bring the slide up to the light so you can see what you got. When you are trying to find that image of your four year old from 1974 and you have to go Umm, which of these slides is that. When you get down into film cameras there is still a need for them, my daughter still uses them, she is an art major. She still uses slides quite heavily in presenting portfolios. In all candor I haven’t used a $1,500 film camera in about 10 years. I extensively use my digital camera when working with it.

The Digital Advantage versus Film Advantage
Most Digital Cameras
-Record and store photos on some sort of removable media card.
-Allows you to shoot numerous photos.
-Easily download them to a computer.
-Clear the card to be used again.

With a Digital Camera
-You can look at the picture as soon as you snap.
-Decide whether it’s good enough to keep.
-If not, you can retake them; before you leave the library or cemetery.
-Create opportunities for example, visit relatives and have them pull out their old photo albums and take photos of them on the spot.

When you think about digital images you can use it in all light conditions. You can take that image and put it in a photo editor, i.e. PhotoShop Elements or whatever you choose to use. I can take what would be normally a very horrible picture with film and I can pop it up, brighten it up. I can do all kinds of things. It is the most forgiving form of media.

Desired Features When Choosing a Digital Camera
-4-megapixel camera (Min).
-Selling for $350 to $500.
-Good quality glass lens.
-Automatic and manual exposure controls or scenes.
-Built-in-flash.
-Ability to shoot multiple formats. (JPEG, TIFF, RAW).
-Lens cover that closes automatically when the camera is turned off.
-4” or closer macro resolution and quality controls.
-Can use rechargeable batteries.
-Minimum 3X zoom on playback.

Today when you are looking for a camera this is not a big deal. When you start looking at them off the shelf they are 10 megapixels. For those of you with an existing digital camera, .that want to use it for genealogy it’s really, really critical that you have at least a four megapixel camera. The real short reason you are going to need for when you start to use a camera for documents. When I go to a library and I come across a book I want, it’s 200 or 300 pages of something that I want, i.e. a family history or something of that nature, rather than photocopying it I will take a photo of it.

When I have that image up on my screen if I have less than a four megapixel and I start to enlarge that I loose the image. Where if I have a four megapixel and above I really get down into detail. There has been times when I photocopy the document and I got have my magnifying glass out trying to figure out if that is an “A, B or a C”, what is that? When I bring that image up on a screen I can blow that image up to the point that there is no question in my mind that it’s a C or a B. I can blow that image up to 4 or 5 or a 1000 percent larger than what it is. Sometimes you need to do that depending on what you gather.

As far a costs of cameras you can get real exotic, you can get into $400-$500. My camera that I brought with me today I spent $800 on it four years ago. Today you can buy that same camera for $50 to $100 on the used market. It’s a great camera and it is still a great camera. If you are looking to find that kind of a camera to do the extra work with. On of the things that will be critical for going genealogy work is a one that allows you to screw on a lens. I also have the ability to zoom something else into it, I can put a barrel on the front of it and then put on a slide adapter. I can get better images taking photo of slides this way than I can using my scanner. I can do 100 slides in about an hour. With your scanner you can’t do that.

Defining Image File Formats
Each picture is stored in the camera as a digital image file. Two most common formats are:
TIFF (*.tif)
1. Best quality for master copy.
2. Image format is a commonly readable file that is recognized by nearly every image-editing program.
3. Some cameras allow you to save the data as .tif files which are much larger than .jpg files and require more storage space.
4. These files require more time to open or save.

JPEG (*.jpg)
1. Smallest files size for email and websites.
2. Higher quality JPEG format is usually good.
3. This file format compresses the actual data from your camera records and reduces the file size, without a noticeable change in image quality.

In my camera I have the ability to define whether if it is a TIFF or multiple levels of a JPEG, a low end, a middle end, or a high end JPEG. There are sometimes that I want a TIFF image. Often times when I am doing scanning for archival purposes, i.e. photo or those types of materials, I will scan it at TIFF at 400dpi. The bottom line is that the TIFF is like your original negative.

If you think about the original negative you had with your film or can do multiple versions off that and no degradation. If you take the picture and start making copies off that picture it is not the same. There is always a little bit of differentiations off like taking a photocopy of a photocopy. The TIFF is jam packing all that information that you have into that picture. When you blow up an image you can start to see the depth into an apple. That’s why you need the megapixel so you can get the crispness of the image.

Defining Image File Formats
Difference in image size.
JPEG (*jpg) 8 x 10 Photo – 343 KB
TIFF (*.tif) 8 x10 Photo – 18,620 KB (18.6 Meg) 54 times larger than JPEG version.

When I started doing scanning I was really concerned about my hard drive space. My hard drive space was 25 megabytes. The first computer I bought was a Macintosh in 1981, I paid for 5 megabytes $3,500. 5 Megs is a JPEG image. Today buying hard drives is not bad. I have a terabyte of disk space at home that is a thousand gigabytes. I am not afraid of disk space you are spending about $1.00 or less a gigabyte now. One of the better places I have found to shop is PC Club in Orem. I like PC Club very simply because its high end hardware and their support and management make it great to deal with.

In your camera is you will just make sure that you are on the high end JPEG, if you have the option to choose between JPEG or TIF the high end JPEG will work for you in 95% of the cases. Once in a while when I am working with slides and doing copy legwork and I come across one that is really, really important to me I cherish it and it’s really critical I will take a TIF image of that slide. That is how I make my choices in that area.

Moving Photos from Your Camera to Your Computer
Method 1: Cable/Docking Station
Your camera will connect to the computer by a cable special docking station. Docking stations are usually proprietary and only work with a camera make and model.

Method 2.: Card Reader/writer
Requires the memory card to be removed from the camera and places in the card reader that connects to your computer. Card readers are available for each type of memory (storage) card or stick.

As far as your camera and your computer we all have issues with docking. I just plug a cord into my camera and download. One of the secrets when you start working with images is it is important to make sure before you start downloading to make sure your batteries don’t run out – otherwise you will loose all your images. It’s really, really critical when you are starting to do work that you have that extra set of batteries.

It’s a beautiful photograph but do you know WHY it’s beautiful? Before we get into the heart and soul of using the camera in genealogy there is this whole concept of composition. I remember when I was taking photography from my teacher back in college. Rick Knight from Knight Photography in Orem was my professor. I learned a lot from Rick. When we first got into cameras he said it was all about composition. I asked when are we going to take pictures? After I got into that I realized the importance of composition. What makes a picture look good? What makes it important? It’s the common force we go do genealogy work we find the land that our ancestors lived on, what do we do, we jump out of the car we stand at the fence line and we take a picture of the land. We are feeling it. When we bring it home we put it in a family history book and we say, just look at the land, and they turn page. Why, because it is not interesting.

When we think about composition it’s all about the ability to think about what you are doing. The principles I am talking about right now, whether you are doing a simple page in a book or microfilm these principles hold true and some level. The first issue is to get close. I can’t tell you how important that is.

When you see the Japanese groups on vacation as you travel around what do they all do? Whatever object they might be, if it is a statue we all have to stand in front of it and take a picture. We I see them coming I stand aside because I am going to have to take 25 pictures with different cameras of them standing in front of a palm tree. What happens is they stand right in front of the picture and they stand up tall. How many of you have pictures like that. It’s like the grand canyon beautiful picture I’m at the grand canyon take my picture of me standing in front of the grand canyon. Well where is the grand canyon – well I’m in the middle of it. If you want me then get close. The whole idea is get close up on it. If you think about the face of a jaguar, the face of the monkey or even the coins, getting up close there is a different feel and excitement that comes with it. When we think about close we think about faces. There is the whole idea about getting up to close to faces that we are going to miss the hair. Me I don’t care if they get up close there is nothing on the side or the top that I care about.

It’s a beautiful photograph, but do you know WHY it’s beautiful? This is the most important principle I want you to understand.
Photographic Composition: The Rule of Thirds and the Golden Mean
-The rule of thirds is a guideline for when you have vertical and horizontal lines in your image.
-the “Golden Mean” says that the main subject of an image should be placed at the interesting points.

Just remember tick-tack-toe – divides the screen up in thirds either horizontally or vertically. Then we have the junction points, the target or the bull’s eye. When you are thinking about a picture you say – I like those pictures. The land is on the lower third, the sky is on the upper third, when you learn to work with that it will make a large difference. There is something about the image and where it sits on the page that makes all the difference in how something feels and looks with that.

Photographic Composition:
Triangle
-By placing objects in your composition along strong diagonal lines that create a triangle, you’ll add strength to your image.
-Another way to use triangles is to draw a line diagonally from one corner to the other of your frame, then draw another line in from either of the remaining corners so that it meets your first line at a 90 degree angle.

Simple rules of composition will help you in doing genealogy photography into absolute magic. If you are taking photos of grandfather’s home or your doing your scanning you are doing the same principles.

Frame within a Frame:
-Use materials near you in your foreground and include them in your photograph around two or more of the edges to create a sort of “frame.”

When I am taking pictures I will actually frame the shot with my hands to see what is a good picture. On my ancestors land I framed the picture with a tree and fence post. You can still see the land but it gives it more interest. When you are working with open land if you have the ability to frame at any level do that or at least take one picture of it framed and then open and when you get back home you can make the choice of what you like and what you don’t like.

The other concept is a Leading Line
-Roads and footpaths are a great way to use leading lines to your advantage and draw your viewer into your photograph.

You are getting lower to the space, whether a face line, road or space, and your letting the line lead your eyes. I could stand up and take a picture of the road or I could crotch down just a little bit and let the road lead my eyes. You can see how the railroad tracks or a path how that works to help out.

Photographic Composition: Circle
-The circle (breaks the Golden Mean) can be used effectively when composing a photograph, if the subject is right.
-“The Circle” is a tricky element to use in photography effectively, but when done well, makes for an outstanding photograph. This is really a fantastic shot – the moody lighting adds a gritty, realistic feel.

One of the toughest things to photograph is circles. How do you work with a circle? I finally decided the best way to work with a circle is straight on. If find if I am dead on center on top that seems to make it just a little bit easier to work with. This comes into play when you are working with artifacts, i.e. a cosmetic case or watch face.

Photographic Composition: Rhythm
-This is a way to use repetition of form and shape in an image to create interest.

One place that is really, really fun is the cemeteries; you will get a rhythm to the headstones. One of the common rhythms we will see with the headstone is like with Arlington Cemetery. I often find that when we are doing family history you find a rhythm in the fence line that is in front of the ancestor’s home. You find a rhythm in the trees near the home. There is a sense of feel that comes with them.

Photographic Composition: Negative Space
-Negative space is a term used in photography that implies only a tiny fraction of the frame is taken up by the actual subject.
-Negative space is usually used to make the subject seem very small, or to give the impression of the subject being in a wide-open space.

So you don’t have a tree your family is from Nebraska. When I was doing some genealogy work in Otis, Kansas, it is smack in the middle of that state and the closes Wal-Mart is a 150 miles away. There weren’t any trees. One of the things you can use is negative space. You are putting off in the picture one element to one side of the frame. If you are using negative space, one way is to have that element point towards where you want the eyes to go.

In the materials I will send to you is a list of what to take with you on a genealogy trip, to the extra battery, film or cards. When I am out doing genealogy on the road for about 2-3 weeks plus and every day is a rush to get something done I was taking 3-4,000 pictures a day. Especially when you are in a library setting and you’ve got a lot of books. There is only one book in the archive and need to get it. When I am doing really heavy work and a JPEG is a meg and half in size I will take a gig or two gigs or four gig backup. In my camera bag I may take up to 10 gigs of cards. Why do I have so many gigs, well over a period of time I didn’t bring enough gig with me and I happened to collect them along the way.

He shows a chart of how many pictures you can take per megapixels. 4MP will fit 724-800 images on a 1GB memory card. 5MP – 565-625 images, 6MP – 452-500 images, 8MP 301-333. You are probably saying 8MP that has to be good, yes, but you don’t need it all. 5MP is just fine, it is not really necessary to go much beyond that.

Taking Better Digital Photos: Overall Tips
-Be prepared. Gather everything you’ll need, such as a tripod; extra batteries, and any props you’ll use.
-Hold your camera steady. Camera movement causes most of the blurry pictures you see.
-Get closer. Try to get within two to four feet of your subject. Ideal photo composition is 90% subject and 10% background.
-Cut the clutter. Nothing ruins a photo like stray objects that detract form your composition.

When I went to Otis, Kansas there was a Lutheran cemetery and a Methodist cemetery. I had family in both cemeteries. I got through the Lutheran but my batteries died before I got to the Methodists. Talk about a mad side of the family. It took me three years before I was able to go back and finish the photography work in that cemetery. A camera battery literally was and 1 ½ drive to the nearest Wal-Mart.

Holding your camera steady a simple trick that will save you a lot of effort in jittery pictures, in some cameras it may take a second or two before it clicks and takes the picture and it’s jittery. It’s especially true in low light. If you don’t have a tripod then use palm of your hand. Put the camera on the face of your hand and that becomes your tripod. Before you take the picture either breathe out or breathe in and just hold it. That will make you steady now. If your fortunate to have a tripod that’s great too.

The idea about clutter, there is people and bushes and all types of things behind your image. The cleaner you can make your image the better off you are. I remember in the photo lab spending to much time trying to get the things out that I didn’t want. If you can do that before you ever get to your editing software you can make images clean and it will save you a lot of work.

Taking Better Digital Photos: Overall Tips
-Don’t say cheese. Sometimes you want a perfectly posed picture, such as a portrait of the kids with their grandparents.
-Avoid the bull’s-eye effect. There’s nothing wrong with placing your subject in the exact center of the frame, but there’s nothing particularly interesting about it either.

People don’t always have to be smiling. Sometimes I will sit back at family reunions over in the corner looking for people and faces. I’ve got pictures where we all stand in a row and say cheese. But I have also found like in the girl, a simple face that is just as good too.

Zero In on the Real Picture
The famous picture of the granddaughter sitting on the couch, I get tired of seeing the lower portion. Get closer in on the person. You can take a larger picture but then in your editing software you can get in closer. There are many times when I have been scanning that I have gotten 3 or 4 pictures out of one image. I’ve done a save as and then cropped portions out and I’ve been able to make these multiple images that are important to me.

Photographing Slides and Film
-For best results, mount your camera on a tripod.
-Mount your adapter to the camera.
-Place the camera in front of light source that will provide constant steady light.
-Insert memory card. Suggest 256 meg or higher.
-Insert the first slide/film and click the shutter button.
-If you are unable to secure an adapter for your camera: Strongly suggest using scanner equipped for slides and film.

Photo Studio in-a-box – www.specialtyphotographic.com
Provides desired tools to photograph documents indoors.

I will use PhotoShop in-a-box when I am in a library with very dark scenarios. You will see that the lights are on the side. Libraries will allow me in about 80% of the times to set up the box with the lights on the side and the book on the bottom and they will let me start taking pictures.

When I am taking pictures of slides I will face the light and let it come in as I take the picture. Not only does it have a slide attachment it will also let you take the microfilm with all your family on it. If you have ever used the scanners at the FHL trying to scan about 400-500 images and just about the time you get going someone’s tapping you on the shoulder – my turn. The images aren’t that great. I have just ordered the films to my local FHC, taken the attachment, slide it along and take a picture of it. It’s a full image like if I had it printed. On those microfilms I have been able to take about 100-200 pictures and put them on CDs and sharing them out with the family to help with the indexing of them. Not everyone has to go to the FHC anymore. I don’t have to worry about the copier being down or giving me bad images.

There is also a picture mount that comes with it so I can put the colored film through it. For all those items, it’s a simple tool, it cost me about $100 for the barrel, about $100 PhotoShop in-a-box. It has saved me hundred of hours if not thousands of dollars in effort.

Genealogy Photography is 10% Outdoors and 90% Indoors
Indoors
-Libraries
-Courthouses
-Museums
-Historical societies
-Homes
-Family reunions
-Other places where documents and pictures are.

Outdoors
-Cemeteries
-Land and buildings where family members once lived, worked or worshipped.
-Many outdoor shots are of historical consequences, but not of genealogical substance.

Why do I use my digital camera versus photocopying? When I first started using it was simply about time. I was at the state library in Kansas and the photocopier went down. I am back the next day and sorry he won’t be here to fix it until Tuesday. I had a plan that leaves in five hours and I’ve already spent a $1,000 to get here so I am going to use my camera. I went through the books. All of a sudden I found when I got home that magic had happened. The images I had were better than the photocopies. Even if they were dark I could take them in my photo editing software and just do auto correct and take a yellow page and turn it bright white. All those types of things became very clear.

Digital Photography Is All About Lighting and Location
-Use flash less than 10% of the time.
-Instead of flash use:
--Natural lighting (e.g., near a window).
--Light stands with diffusion screen and lights.
--Self-contained photo studio includes: tripod, diffusion lights and screen, and copy stand.
-Shooting documents with flash indoors usually creates a “Hot Spot” caused by using flash too close.
-When you have no choice but a flash; use it sparingly like in a group setting or for a gravestone that is in shaded area.
-Many libraries and research facilities prohibit flash photography.
-Come prepared to shoot without flash.

The first problem you will always face is lighting. He shows examples of cemetery headstones in morning sun, mid-day sun, sunset and an overcast day. The best light outdoors for cemeteries in an overcast day. In the information he will send to you is a whole section on how to work with headstones. Simple ticks on using a water bottle and spraying the face you want to cover on a white stone. It will darken it up enough to give you a darker image.

Photographing Unbound Pages
-Mount your camera on its stand, in shooting postion.
-Use a white sheet of paper, or the white painted cookie sheet.
--Set the pre-set white balance on your camera.
--Choose auto white balance if your camera doesn’t have a pre-set option.
-Place your document in position and anchor it with magnets.
-Select the camera’s macro mode if necessary.

Take a new cookie sheet and on the back cover it with white contact paper. Use magnets the best are the ones you get from the insurance guys and cut them up into strips. It’s a nice way to get a clean flat surface to take you photos.

Photographing Unbound Pages
-Zoom in so document is properly framed.
-Make sure the focus is clear and sharp.
-Set the camera’s self-timer, and press the shutter.
-View the picture on the LCD; zoom in and check for the proper focus, and exposure (brightness and contrast). Can you easily read the text?
-If the focus and/or exposure are incorrect, make the camera corrections, and re-shoot the document.

Books can be a problem, because the pages seldom lay completely flat when the book is opened to a normal reading position.
-Shoot book pages with the cover held up at the 80-degree angle.
-Rotate the book so spine is facing the back of the copy stand.
-Open the book to the first page you want to shoot.
--Make sure there are no shadows falling on the page.
--Hold the front, or back cover and the pages preceding the one you are shooting.

In one of my trips I came across a clue that said that there was a women that donated some documents to the library of Virginia. I kept trying to call this archive for multiple days saying I don’t have time to come out but would you please photocopy them. I finally got a hold of him and he said Mr. Ewell we can’t do that for you. Guys money isn’t the issue I don’t have time to come out, I’ve been in the field 10 days and my plane goes back tomorrow. Barry you don’t understand there are a hundred volumes here. I said I will be right up. Thinking that I still have a 6 hour drive to the airport and the things I need to do. I drive back up the other way. When I get there I see these volumes and something magically happens.

I set up my items there and I am taking photos. My wife was going to come in and we were going to spend a few days together and I’m saying I can’t leave I gotta get this stuff. Her plane lands and I am still four hours out from Washington. She calls and says sweetheart I am looking for you. I’m here. Where? In Virginia, four hours away. I said I would be right there but ½ an hour later I am still taking pictures. As I left the University there’s a strong spirit that says this is why I sent you to Virginia. I realized that the work is just more than photos but it was capturing the work that would be done for this women that had spent 25 years capturing pictures and documentation. This was a live, live document.

I made that decision on the way to pick my wife up that I would extend my trip for an extra 2 ½ weeks. I came back to the University about a week later and set up for four days just taking these 100 volumes of information. There was this whole idea if I going, am I only capturing my own family? That is the beauty of the camera you can capture a lot more than just what you are looking for. It’s frustrating to think that you have a photocopy of something and then it says refer back to page 452. Not good if you only have page 453.

Photographing Bound Pages
-Set the timer and press the shutter button halfway down and hold in position for a few seconds to give the camera time to adjust the automatic focus and exposure settings.
-Check to make sure the focus is correct before pressing the button all the way down so the timer releases the shutter.
-Before photographing the next pages, place the opposite cover down on the table.

What is nice about the camera is that I can capture two pages at a time. If I need to split the pages I can do it in my photo editing software. If I take pictures right side up or upside down I don’t care I can turn it in the software. Even if my image is crooked I can set it up in the imaging software. Digital photography without the digital editing software is kinda hard to work with.

Photographing Bound Pages
-Slide the book back into position so that it is under the camera, with the spine of the book next to the stands.
Note: if the page is upside down, that’s ok. You can fix that during your editing.
-Repeat for each page, turning the book around each time.

Using Voice Recognition Software for Scanned and Filmed Documents
Background
-Page Photographed
Need
-Need to turn into a Word Text File to use in family history, website, etc.
-File Size 239 Words
Voice Recognition
-Naturally speaking (Speaking and Editing) 2 Min 23 Sec.
-99% Recognition
Data Entry
-Data Entry into Word (Typing and Editing) 6 min 45 Sec.

I went down to the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and in the index I found 75 histories of both sides of my family. I am taking 500 pictures and we say I would like to get that in a text format. Well, I don’t want to be typing 500 pages again. What I do have is a digital recorder and I use a software, Dragon Naturally Speaking, I can speak into the headset and it will type it automatically for me. I spent 10 hours over a period of weeks and I had a transcript that I read into the digital recorder. I put it into the jacket and I synced it up into the software in about and hours time I had 400 pages of script that I never had to put my fingers on. You give commands to the software so it knows what to do with it. For me it’s about 98% correct.

Photographing Oversized Pages
-Set up your stand, and adjust your camera.
-Open the large book/page.
-Adjust the camera and take photos.

I was in one of the libraries and I came across this map 18” x 24” and I had my camera up. I wasn’t able to get the whole document so I got up a little higher on the chair. Next thing you know I am standing on the table. I look down and there is a librarian looking up. What are you doing? I’m sorry, I got down and I said I got to work this out. This isn’t going to work.

Here is a secret for Photographing Oversized Pages
-If the page is too large for your camera (e.g. map, newspaper) consider taking multiple photos which can be “stitched” together in editing program. For example:
--Use card: START
--Use card: 1 Top Left:
--Use card: 2 Top Right
--Use card: 3 Bottom Left
--Use card: 4 Bottom Right
--Use card: END
-Rotate the book/paper as needed.

Like most genealogist it is exciting to gather but it might be a few months or years before we are able to get back to the materials we gathered. When I am able to take this document and reassemble it I know how it fits together. It makes it really simply to work with.

Common Experiences of Photographing Photos
-Photos are tucked away in trunk, glued in albums, etc.
-Access to the photos requires owner to be there with you.
-Sometimes photos are already in book or magazine.
-Photographs are captured best with scanner.
-When scanner is not available, digital camera is next best thing.

Type of photos expected:
-Usually black and white.
-Tintypes and sepia toned portraits.
-Postcards.
-Color photographs.
-Old negatives.
-Slides.
-Transparencies
-Printed in book/magazine
-Cut out from/printed in newspaper.

I had that opportunity to sit in at an aunt’s home and scan photos. I was there all day and I only had one day to do it. As the day was drawing near I didn’t have time to finish the scanning. I made sure I did all the photographs but then when it came to paper documents I used my camera. Sometimes that is all that you have the ability to work with. You found that photo in a library and that’s the only image you have seen available. That camera is going to give you the ability to bring home and you are going to have that picture of that relative, it’s not going to be a photocopy, it’s going to be a good solid image. With a few little tricks you can make it almost as good as the original.

Photographing Photos
-Mount your camera on it’s stand, in shooting position.
-Use a white sheet of paper/copy stand.
-Place your photo in position and anchor it with magnets if desired.
-Select the camera’s macro mode if necessary.
-Zoom in so photo is properly framed.
-Make sure the focus is clear and sharp. Set the camera’s self-timer, and press the shutter.
-View the picture on the LCD; zoom in, check for the proper focus, exposure (brightness and contrast).
--Make sure you don’t see any reflections, hot spots, etc.
-If the focus and/or exposure are incorrect, make the camera corrections, and re-shoot the document.

Photographing Microfilm
-Hold the camera up next to the lens. Or place your camera on a tripod located in front of the reader screen.
-Place a white paper (or other color) on the read surface as the target area for shooting.
-Adjust the camera/tripod position so the information you want to copy fills the LCD frame, not the viewfinder.
-Focus and or set the macro mode if necessary. This will depend on your camera model and how far away it is from the microfilm reader.
-Make sure the flash is turned off. Set the camera’s self-timer if needed.
-Gently press the shutter button halfway to lock the exposure and focus.
-Press the button completely down. If using the tripod; move away from the camera and wait for the self-time to trip the shutter.
-Take several shots. Consider using the “best shot selection” and/or auto bracketing your shots if your camera has these features or manual bracketing if it doesn’t.

Photographing People
-Enjoy taking photographs
-Take close “tight” photos of your subject.
-Take candid pictures.
-Use natural light.
-Avoid harsh shadows.

Photographing Children
Make picture-taking a part of your everyday life with children. Children are always climbing, building, exploring, and trying out new things.
-Begin a photo tradition.
-Be patient
-Shoot at eye level
-Take candid pictures
-Include friends
-Get close
-Lets kids record their world.
-Place your subject off-center

Photographing Buildings
-Choose your angle, avoid distractions
-Include an interesting object in the foreground
-Take pictures of the buildings architectural details
-Include people when appropriate
-Use lines to lead the eye
-Wait for the right light
-Consider the direction the building is facing.

Telling a Story
Take a sequence of pictures that convey the main point of the project – tearing down a wall, digging a hole, showing a horse, taking a trip, walking in the steps of ancestors. Include all the steps.
-Start with a “before” shot.
-Include people
-Show details
-Shoot at different angles.
-Fill the frame.
Photographing Family Gatherings
-Scenes from the funeral.
-Get close

Photographing at the Cemetery
-Take photos of the cemetery entrance, sign, book of records, and church.
-North, south, east, and west: Best time of day for photographing headstones
-Large headstones need a close-up of inscriptions.
-Family grave plots need group and individual photos of each headstone.
-Consider taking photos of all headstones in small community cemetery.
-Look at the base, top, sides, and back of headstones.
-Take eye-level photos of headstone inscriptions
-Talk to the sexton.
-Take the time to clear grass and other foliage away from inscription.
-Use a little chalk for the hard to read old headstones.
-Tilt your camera to the angle of the headstones.
-Black and gray polished marble shoot at angle.
-Try using flash on shady headstones on cloudy days.
-Try soft brush or natural sponge and water to remove surface soil.
-Never use hard objects or stiff brushes to clean the stone.
-Removing lichens with sharp objects most often destroys surface.
-Keep a written record.

Photographing at the Cemetery
-Some items to consider as part of the written record include:
--Location
-Map of the cemetery with stones numbered.
--When photographed (time, date, and frame number).
--Transcription of the epitaph.
-Post your photos of headstones on family websites of sites such as Virtual Cemetery. http://www.genealogy.com/vcem_welcome.html

In closing: The same principles I talked about with using the camera apply to the scanner. He showed how he was able to use his imaging software to clean up some photos.

This presentation is available on DVDs #132 for UVPAFUG members to borrow or purchase.