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.

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.

Family History Library Internet Favorites by G. David Dilts

10 Nov 2007

Introduction of Speaker by Gerhard Ruf
Main Presentation: G. David Dilts – Family History Library Internet Favorites
Brother Dilts is an accredited genealogist who has worked and taught at Family History Libraries since 1975. He is currently a senior reference consultant in the US East and Canada Reference Unit. He is a past Commissioner of ICAPGen and past Vice-President of the Utah Genealogical Association. His recent presentations include conferences at ICAPGen, the Computerized Genealogy Conference at BYU, UGA, Grand Juntion and for the Silicon Valley Computerized Genealogy Group. He is accredited in LDS Research and German Research. He has articles on the FamilySearch Wiki include a brief abstract of this presentation. Which include the selected browsers and bookmark links which are available and being developed by the Family History Library and is updated periodically. This is going to be like getting the best of the best from Cyndi’s List, the sites that will help you the most in your genealogical endeavors. He will describe how you can get those for your own computers. You can have those links as your own bookmarks or favorites in your browser. How to install that and how they are structured.

G. David Dilts – Family History Library Internet Favorites

The internet is one of the best tools for finding your family history. Problem: Finding the right Internet site is often difficult and time consuming. Solution: FHL Internet Favorites!

Class objectives
At the end of class each student will be able to:
-Explain what FHL Internet Favorites are.
-Copy FHL Internet Favorites to a disk and load them onto a home computer.
-Describe how they are organized.
-Use Favorites to answer a variety of genealogical questions
-Explain 3 strategies for using the Internet to find information about ancestors.

I. Explain what FHL Internet Favorites are. FHL Internet Favorites are bookmarks (links) to the most useful sites on the Internet for family history researchers.
-thousands of links (bookmarks)
-selected by FH Library staff
-on each public computer at the FHL and some FHCs. They are available at the Red Chapel.
-organized somewhat like the FHL Catalog
-updated every few months

Why would you use them?
-They show the best of Internet genealogy
-They are convenient
-They save time
-Use them to discover useful new Internet sites

3 Ways to Access Favorites at FHL:
1. From the Patron Desktop menu (Find Ancestors / blue ribbon Favorite Sites)
2. From the Menu Bar (Favorites [sometimes under Links, sometimes not])
3. From the Toolbelt (Links folders) on the browser

II. Be able to copy Favorites to a disk and load them onto a home computer.
Step 1. On the FHL Desktop, click here for instructions about copying Favorites. Print them.
Step 2. Follow the instructions to copy FHL Favorites.exe from the D: drive to the A: drive.
Step 3. On your home computer unzip it by double clicking the a: FHL Favorites file. Be sure the “Unzip to folder” field says C:
Step 4. Follow your printed instructions to use your Internet Browser Import Export Wizard.

III. Describe how FHL Internet Favorites are organized.
A. Somewhat like the subject headings on the FHL Catalog: Place is important and/or Topics
B. Major divisions:
Places:
1. World sites covering topics significant to more than one nation
2. British Great Britian & Commonwealth nations Ire. Scot. Wales, Australia, NZ, India (sometimes down to parish level)
3. Canada & USA North American topics (usually not smaller than state level)
4. International Europe, Latin America & Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Pacific Islands
and/or Topics:
5. News of interest to genealogist
6. Search Engines tools for finding web sites using a key phrase of your own choosing (especially good for finding county and town sites not usually in Canada & USA file)

C. Most topic folders match FHL Research Outlines, or the FHL Catalog. Each such topic is defined in national research outlines.
D. The Major Subdivision sheet shows more examples of Internet Favorites organization
1. Bullet topics on the sheet are not normally in the FHL Catalog
2. Boxed topics on the sheet are examples of links that actually open Internet sites
E. General folders concern topics significant to more than one county, province, or state.
F. Some World and General files have three main subdivision:
1. Background Information = non-genealogy data about an ancestor’s culture, or instruction telling how to find him
2. Finding Aids = reference tools that help identify or locate genealogy sources
3. Record Types = sources that usually show genealogy data
G. Tools & Helps (part of World / Background Information) includes many useful sites. Such as:
Inflation Calendar, Birth Date Calculator, Calendar history, Currency converter, Genealogy Electronic Citation Guide, Kinship Charts, Roman Numeral and Date Conversion, Soundex Converter, etc.

IV. Be able to use Favorites to answer a variety of genealogical questions.
We located the answer to the following question and several others.
1. What does the name “Michael: mean? Looked: World>Background Information>Names Personal>Etymology>Behind the Name. Answer: Hebrew “who is like God?”

V. Explain 3 strategies for using the Internet to find information about ancestors.
A. Start looking for a family using broad worldwide Favorites searches. Then work down to national Favorites, and then to state or provinces.
B. On the first search enter relatively little search information, e.g. just a surname. Piece-by-piece slowly add data to new searches until you have a reasonable list of hits.
C. Use search engines to hunt for county or parish level genealogical sources.

Question and Answers:
1. The FHL Internet Favorites works just fine with Mozilla. You will not over write the links you already saved in your Favorites. It will create a new folder with the links.
2. If you want to update the FHL Favorites it is best to delete the old folder and then reinstall the new version of favorite links.
3. Why use favorites when you can use a search engine? Favorites are the best stuff and you do not have to search through all the search engine results to find the most helpful sites.
4. BYU has the FHL Internet Favorites loaded on their computers. They also have their own site with a list of favorites, which are different.

This presentation is available on DVDs #129 for UVPAFUG members to borrow or purchase.

Share Your Genealogy and Collaborate with Relatives Online Using PhpGedView by John Finlay

13 Oct 2007

Introduction of Speaker by Brian Cooper
Main Presentation: John Finlay – Share Your Genealogy and Collaborate with Relatives Online Using PhpGedView
John Finlay graduated from BYU with a degree in Computer Engineering. He worked in the Information Technology industry for several years, developing systems for digital archives and preservation. He is currently a full-time faculty member teaching at Neumont University. In the summer of 2002, John created PhpGedView as an open source genealogy application. If you haven’t heard of Open Source, it means that the code for the program is made freely available to anyone who wants to look at it. You might compare it to the difference between sharing the sources of your family history research, or just sharing your conclusions. If your sources are open and available for review and update, other researchers can assist in the work and it can progress forward much faster than if only one person or group is working on it. PhpGedView is currently the largest and most active Open Source genealogy application. John is married to Melissa Corn Finlay, who holds a degree in genealogy and family history. They reside in South Jordan, Utah and have 5 children.

John Finlay – Share Your Genealogy and Collaborate with Relatives Online Using PhpGedView

There are a lot of new and exciting things like FamilySearch that are coming available. It’s always good to remember why we are doing it. This technology is to help us to remember our ancestors, those that came before us and are such a part of us.

How many of you have ever had to share GEDCOM files before? How many of you enjoy doing that process when you were doing? In general works this you have someone is maybe in Utah and another person in Washington, D.C. you are both relatives working on the same genealogy line. To share your data you have to send GEDCOM files back and forth. Once you do that you have to import it and take all the people and match theirs with yours and merge everything together. Doing that takes a lot of time. You could have hundred of people duplicated and it takes hours to clean up. It’s a mess. When I was working on PhpGedView this was one of the problems we wanted to solve. How can we make the process of sharing our data and working together better?

Sharing
How many of you post your genealogy on a website? Not as many that share GEDCOMs but still quit a few. The advantages of that are you get people who are related, such as cousins. When people put it online people can search Google and find you.

How do you traditionally share your genealogy on the internet.
You – Genealogy application – Export HTML files – Upload to a Web Server – On the Internet – where you family can find them. The big problem here is if anyone has updates, and you will have updates, they have to send them back to you and you then have to start the whole process over again. This was another problem we wanted to address. How can we make this whole process of sharing your genealogy on the internet easier.

What is PhpGedView?
PhpGedView (PGV) is an internet based genealogy program that you can use to:
-setup your own genealogy website
-edit your data online
-collaborate with people working on the same family lines
-also great for surname studies or locality studies

It is an internet genealogy program it’s meant to be a full replacement of your desktop application. You set it up on a website. All you have to do is upload your GEDCOM file to it and it automatically shares your data on the internet in an editable and collaborative fashion. I will put my genealogy up there and its automatically for search engines and everyone to come find. I can give usernames and passwords to my relatives who also can work with the exact same data.

A lot of people also like to use it for surname studies or locality studies. A surname study is when you are doing all the Finlay’s for example or all the Finlay’s in a certain area, or maybe you are doing you small home town you grew up in. You could record all the people in that town and record all of their lives.

PGV can do all of the things that a typical desktop genealogy program can do, but it runs over the internet. It has all the sources capabilities and you can create all the reports you are used to having with your traditional program. It imports and exports GEDCOM files, so it is compatible with other genealogy software.

You don’t have to completely give away your traditional software if you want to use this. A lot of people still use it to share their genealogy online and they still do all their editing or stuff on PAF or tradition legacy program. You can continue to do it that way.

PGV Viewing Features
-PGV includes standard genealogy charts such as pedigree, descendant and family group.
-It also has lists, calendars, PDF reports, and several other charts.
-PGV supports photos, audio, and many other types of media.

Collaborative Scenario
-Suppose you have Aunt Edna who lives in New York working on her favorite family lines.
-Uncle Kobi lives in Israel and works on his favorite people.
-Leonid in St. Petersburg updates his part of the family
-You live in Utah and work on your favorite lines
-Give Aunt Edna, Uncle Kobi and Leonid the ability to edit online
-They keep their favorite lines up to date
-You keep the ability to review new data before it goes live on your site.

You would just give Aunt Edna, Uncle Kobi and Leonid a PGV username and password, they can come to your website, log in and edit and work the data directly online. I use these international countries because PhpGedView has full multi-lingual support. It supports Hebrew, it supports Russian, it supports Sweden and German. It supports 25 different languages that you can use. I recently helped someone set up a website; they were doing a Polish family reunion. One of the big things he was interested in was that it supports the Polish language so all his Polish relatives could participate.

So they are all working online on their data. There is no sharing GEDCOM files and matching and merging and all that stuff. They can all work together on this data. All of the editing stuff that goes in there you can set it up so you have review capabilities. Everything that they put on is not made public immediately. First it goes to a holding area. You will get an email notification that will say Hey they made this change. You can go in and look at it, edit it to meet your standards or you can accept it or reject it if you don’t agree with it. Some people don’t want that and they have everyone have full editing capabilities and that is completely possible. So it is up to you how you want to handle that.

Say you have relatives you trust doing genealogy and others you are not so comfortable because maybe they are not so good at doing sources yet. You can give some the ability to automatically enter their data and it goes public and you can give others the ability to be peer reviewed first before it goes public.

PHP is actually the program language that this was written in. When I created the program it was common in the industry if you were using PHP language to prefix it with the application PHP. That is where the PHP comes from most of the time now I abbreviate it to PGV. It also started out as a GEDCOM viewer so that’s how the name came about. But now it is a full featured way to edit you genealogy online. It stands for personal homepage tools, basically a programming language.
Brian mentioned that it is open sourced. Part of being open sourced means anyone in the world can help me work on it. I stated this as open sourced hoping that other people would help me develop it. I don’t get paid to work on this. I am a computer facility member at Neumont University, my day job is that I stand up and teach people how to program computers. Then I do this on the side. But I have people all over the world helping me to do this. I have people in Israel, France, Great Britain, four or five here in the United States. It’s been a very interesting and exciting thing not only to work with other programs around the world but other genealogists around the world. We have a great international community of people around the world all dedicated to helping this program succeed.

How PhpGedView simplifies Collaboration
Remember before how you had to take all these steps to get on the internet. Now all you have to do is put your GEDCOM file, your genealogy on a server with PhpGedView running on it. That web server with PhpGedView automatically makes it available. What you do is work with your data on the internet. Because it is on the internet you family can also log in and work with it on the internet and also the world can see it.

Privacy Settings
-PGV has many privacy functions built into it to protect personal information about living people.
-The default privacy settings will hide the names and details of living people from users who are not logged into the site.
-These privacy features can be adjusted by site administrators to meet their desired level of privacy.

You will notice that the world has a privacy filter on there. So all of you private data is not public to the world. So if you went to my website and tried to find me you could find me, I am a living person and privacy laws prevent us from sharing that. You have full privacy controls. Some people don’t want the world to find anything. They say you have to be logged into find anything. Other people say I don’t want any of my sources viewable to the public. I want all those kept private until they log in. You have full privacy control and control data once it’s up there and what people can see.

-PGV can be downloaded for free from the http://www.phpgedview.net website.
-It requires that you have some web-space that supports the programming language PHP and it will take some technical knowledge to set it up.
-There are also several hosting services that can set it up for you for a nominal fee.

Finlay Family Genealogy - http://finlayfamily.org/genealogy
You have full multi-media support you can upload pictures, documents and stories, full things video and sound files. Cool things about your family members that people like. One person sent me a note and said thank you for helping me help my uninterested family members become interested in genealogy again. Because they have the ability to share all this rich media with them.

The homepage is completely customizable you can change the way things are laid out. It allows you to save a list of favorites, like bookmarks, people that are your favorite people. It allows you to keep multiple GEDCOMs so if you are working on, say you divided up your family line into multiple files you can share them with different family trees. The look and feel of the homepage is also totally customizable. There are several themes you can use. If you know some HTML you can also change it to how you want it.

On the top of the homepage are icons one is to change the language it is displayed in. Hebrew is interesting because it is read from right to left. You have to switch everything around. As an administrator I can choose which language I want. I also has full support for entering the names of people in multiple character sets. If you have a Russian relative they will have a Russian name and then they will have a Romanized name. You would spell one in the Russian alphabet and then another in the English alphabet so you can record all of those names.

Clicking on any name will send you to the details on that person. You could see all his events, census details, sources. There is also full LDS support. The sources look very similar to what you do in PAF. You can attach a source to any fact or any person, and see a list of all those attached to the source afterwards.

There is a vanity counter on each page so you can see which of your ancestors is the most popular. You can search for people by their RIN number if you want or by name. The album is where you will see their multimedia. You can see all their close relatives and details on those. You can see a Google map of all of his events. There are a variety of charts you can look at. On the pedigree chart you can change the number of generations to view.

What people were very interested in when we were developing it was to see more information on it at a time. If you are researching something you generally want to jump back and forth between the data and see things. If you are researching the father you often want to see information on the children, dates, and possible locations for things you are going to research. One of the things you can do is on any of the boxes there is a zoom. You can expand his box and it fills in all of his details so you can see it right there. All of the boxes and charts have that capability.

The reports are printable quality you can do them in HTML you can have the full record of his life and print it out. The same way you could from your regular application. There are templates; it is a new thing I have been working on. When you log in you will get edit options on the page. You will see whatever features you have enabled for this option. For the templates we have the Research Assistant. It is designed to help you track and manage the research you are doing about a relative. We have several of the common search engines out there you can choose what data that you want to include in the search. It will automatically do the search for you on Ancestry or FamilySearch, etc. You can keep a research log you can decide what task you are doing and assign a task to a particular researcher, then you can attach it to a source. You can also attach multiple people to the task – say his whole family for the census. It helps you organize your research that way.

Once you have created a Research Task you can then choose a form you want to enter your data in. This is a very source orientated way to enter your data. The Census Form or template has all the fields that you would normally see on a census. Once you fill it out it will compare it against his record and help you to automatically choose some facts that you should probably add for him. From a census records we learn a lot of things about them, names, birth place, parents’ name, and their parents’ birth place. I can add immediately all the facts that comes from this source citation.

When you enter dates it will correct them to the right format. You can search for places to enter by your place list. When you add facts from the form or templates it will automatically add the source citation. When you add new information it will show up as blue. When you change something on a person’s data it will show up as red. Now you can choose to approve or accept the changes made to your database or undo and deny them. If you decide to remove facts afterwards you can just delete them. If you are signed in as an administrator you can deny all the changes you just made if you want to.
You have the option to even remove the Research Assistant if you don’t want it. You can pick and choose with features you have on your database. On the Individual List you can sort by any column in it. You can sort by birth or death date or name or places. You can also sort by last changed. If you want to know all the recent charges just sort on that column and you can see the last person with information changed.

You can import your GEDCOM file from PAF to PhpGedView or download from PGV to PAF. We have taken great care that the GEDCOM capabilities are the best. If you have some weird tag in there it will not be removed it just might not show it. You can keep as many GEDCOM files as you want on your database. You can download all of a GEDCOM or part using the Family Tree Clippings Cart. You can take clippings of your family tree and download parts of them.

Every page has a help icon on it. If you are confused and you click on the icon it will tell you about that page. Some items have help icons on them and they will them you what that item does. There is a lot of online help. Since this is open sources all the documentation is user contributed. So it is other users like your self helping to write the documentation for this. There is a Wiki to help people to that. You will find a users guide there. You can search through the entire users guide. A lot of this documentation has been translated into other languages.

You cannot search PhpGedView for other people’s sites; it is not a global site. You can only search in one person’s site with their unique URL for the individuals that they have. If you do a Google search it will pull it up if it is in a PhpGedView database on the web. I have had people use PGV with 50mgs of data – about 60,000 people, theoretically it can handle as large as you have.

Usually you will have to pay for a hosting service about $3-4 a month. An example is X-Mission in Salt Lake you can rent a hosting site from them for about $5.00 a month. Then you just load these files a GEDCOM and it goes. There are hosting services that will do it for you. There are four of them right now; they run about $7.00 a month. The links are on our site http://www.phpgedview.net/ The free ones are only for a couple hundred people. A hosting service will set everything up for you, you just send them a GEDCOM.

If you just want to see how it works you can download a demo and version and it will work on your computer. It will run like it’s a website on your computer. No one else will see it and once you shut down your computer it will turn off, but it will allow you to play with all the features and such. You can even put your own data into it, it comes already with some data in it.

Why would we go with this instead of waiting for New FamilySearch? I have been participating in the betas for new FamilySearch and they have done a great job. NFS has a lot of good features that are new in it. The reason I am not going to go to NFS for all of my data is privacy control. I can’t say don’t share this person with other people, even if he is dead. I don’t have that control at FamilySearch. Their source citation stuff is still a bit behind. They are going to work on that though. Another thing is that at least for the next couple of years only everything in NFS is LDS access. So if you have relatives that are out there and they are not LDS they will not be able to access it for a couple more years.

I also like to control the presentation of it. The way I present my family is import to me online. With FamilySearch you only have one way to do that. Finally NFS does not have any multimedia support. And they have no plans to every add that.

Now like I said I love what FamilySearch is doing, they are doing great work. They talked about how Ancestral Quest, Legacy, RootsMagic are going to work with NFS. I have also been in on a lot of those meetings. We are also looking to integrate with NFS. We will be integrating differently than those programs. What we are going to do is allow you, if you have already have a PhpGedView website, to link people in FamilySearch to your data it will automatically pull that data over and connect them up and keep them linked and synchronized between NFS and PhpGedView.

One of the goals of NFS is to not have duplicate people and to put the whole world into one big family tree. I think that is a great goal and I’m glad that the Church and FamilySearch is working on that. But when I want to work with my data I am interested in my people. Those are the reason I am not going with that but you might find it works for you.

If you choose to do everything online and work with multiple users at one time a lot of people are not comfortable doing that yet. You are fully welcome to continue to use PAF or your traditional program for that. Then you would upload your GEDCOM file when you want to update the site. It’s very easy. It will just replace what is up there and it won’t duplicate anything.

Now that other programs are use to these other options I have already been approached by Legacy to add integration. The same integration they will have with FamilySearch they will have with PhpGedView.

If you go into Google to search someone using PhpGedView you would type the name followed by PhpGedView and it will find it anyone is using the program working on your line. [Ezekiel Johnson PhpGedView] You could contact people and see if you can collaborate with them.

Demonstrated how to add multi-media, it supports all the formats you can normally put on a website. Demonstrated various charts on the program. There are backup capabilities with the program. It includes all your uses and media files, etc. not just the GEDCOM file.

You can also link people onto someone else’s site that is using PhpGedView or NFS. It will show that this person found is also in these other places. There are a lot of people looking at the code so they will find if there are security breaches. In their history they have had two security breaches and it was found and a patch was given within the day. This is one of the most secure programs out there because of that. It’s been over two years since they had any major security problems. You can also make a demo CD of your site and give it to family members.

When changes have been made my other uses you will be sent an email notification of the changes. There is also an option to have it show up on the homepage. It will list all the changes that have been made that need to be accepted. You can also show recent changes.

There is an option feature to add Message Forums. It allows people to post messages. If you want to have a family discussion about people or your genealogy you can enable the message forums. It works like any other message forums.

You can merge two people files together in the program but it is easiest to do it from within PAF or your other computer software, then upload it to the site.

There are tutorials online in the helps to walk you through the program but they are not connected to a live site – that is a great suggestion to have one.

There are 30 active contributors to the program but they are not all developers, a lot of them are translators. In any given week there are about 5 people submitting code, in a month about 10-12. Every quarter I get a group of students that work on this program. I will have them do different features. This quarter I am having them do an advanced search. The students also have to learn this they have 10 weeks to learn PHP, the architecture of the program; it’s a great learning experience for these students. Genealogy is one of the most complicated things from a computer science prospective but it is also someone can easily know. I know I can be related to people once you have to do that in computer science it is a fascinating problem.

I have been asked if I will do classes and I would be happy to set them up and have myself or one of my students teach them.

This presentation is available on DVDs #127 for UVPAFUG members to borrow or purchase.