Kindo Family Blog

Eight years ago I was touring France  with a group of 30 students (including my two children), three teachers and about 5 other adults. We learned so much about records and history in France! If you have some French genealogy, you might want to check out these sites:

• Footnote has some documents related to the Bastille
• This site has a list of all those executed by the guillotine. It’s in French, so you may need to translate it.
• Alliance Genealogie is another French site
• Notre Temps.com is a French portal aimed at seniors, with a Genealogy Beginners Guide. It has searches of several French databases and articles highlighting genealogy. This site is exclusively in French.
• The French president’s site has a page (in English) on the history of 14 July.
• Cyndi’s List has a whole page of links related to France.
• This clip from Casablanca c’est formidable!
• And this site has the French National Anthem’s history and lyrics.

With Kindo’s successful Hindi launch let us take a look at the various ways to enable Hindi support on Windows and Mac environment.

Windows XP

Enable support for Indian languages (Indic) on your computer. Windows XP has inbuilt Indian languages features. If you enable these features, you will be able to view the Hindi pages much better. You must have at least 10 MB of free hard disk space. Before starting, please close any open programs.

1. Launch Control Panel (from the Start button)
2. Go to Regional and Language Options.
3. Select the Languages tab.
4. Check (click) the line marked Install files for complex scripts and right to left languages (including Thai) When you check this line, a new window will appear, which will give a list of languages that will be installed. This list includes Indic. (You need atleast 10MB of hard disk space and need to restart you computer).

If Windows XP users are unable to read Hindi text on the website:

* Go to View menu of your browser followed by the Encoding submenu
* Select Unicode (UTF-8) option. If the Autoselect option is available check it.

The above steps will allow Winxp users to view Hindi
For writing in Hindi you can download Baraha Software.

For instructions on Hindi support for Mac please visit the following link.

Scams in genealogy are as old as the hobby itself. Many of the time honored ones (which I’ll cover in a minute) have moved from junk mail and classified ads to online. Others are brand new, taking advantage of the fact that on the Internet, no one knows if you’re a skunk. Here are a few of the more common ones.

The complete family history of [your surname here]! These scammers have been operating by regular mail, classified ads and online all my lifetime. For an exorbitant amount of money, you get a hard-bound book that is a mass-produced, glorified phone directory of randomly selected names, accompanied by a brief generic history unrelated to your actual family. This particular scam was run by Halberts of Ohio for years, by bulk surface and email, until they finally were run out of business by widespread reports of what they were really selling. However, it may reappear at any time; be forewarned.

A closely related scam promised you various junk with “your family crest” or “[Your Surname] coat of arms” and a “history of your family name.” Unless your genealogy can prove you are related to a family enrolled by the College of Arms, you don’t have a family coat of arms. The history of a given surname is often available for free on the Internet; don’t pay for it.

“Guides” and “programs” that only point you to free sites. Some software products and online services claim to be genealogical gold mines, but they really only point you to readily available phone books, compiled surnames and GEDCOMs.

In most cases this information available for free, but the scammer charges you for simply pointing you toward Cyndi’s List, RootsWeb, and Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter. Or worse, simply to the many different white pages available online.

The old phony inheritance ploy. This scam is designed to separate alleged rightful heirs from their money by charging them fees for “processing”. In fact a surface mail version of this was popular with scammers in the last century. The victim is informed that unclaimed inheritance connected to his family must be settled, and details on how to claim the inheritance will be sent to him—after paying for various service fees to the informer to handle the lost estate, which never existed to begin with.

A modern variation is the foreign widow who wants help transferring her money to your country. Any time you are asked to send personal and financial information, delete it. Check out this page: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/scams.asp#inherit for more on these scams.

Falsified credentials as professional genealogists. Genealogists are unregulated and do not require an official license. Anyone can legally claim to be one. Genealogical data is easy to just make up, and con artists often do. However, certain bodies do issue legitimate credentials to persons who have passed education and skills tests. If you want to hire a professional, look for certification from a third party such as the Association of Professional Genealogists, The International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists, and the Board for the Certification of Genealogists.

BTW,  I have an appendix in my book about how to choose a professional genealogist!

One way to share what data you have and note what data you need is to post your genealogy on the web. Before you do that, however, please read the Guidelines For Publishing Web Pages On The Internet. This document sets out the best ways to make your page findable and useable by other genealogists.

How do you publish? Why using the Kindo interface, of course, is one easy way. Just remember this important rule: Leave out data on living persons if you can.

That brings up another point, that is very, very important. Some folks are afraid that their hard work and research might be “stolen” from the Internet, so they deliberately insert factual errors on their web pages.

Dont. Do. That.

Ever.

If you have data you want to keep in reserve for future information swaps, simply omit it. If you have data you want to keep private until you publish your hardbound, limited edition genealogy, that’s fine. And of course, never publish anything that could be used to steal your identity.

But do not ever publish anything, in print or online, that you know to be false. It’s extremely difficult to remove all traces of anything on the Web, and that incorrect information may linger longer than you do!

Happy Family Tree Climbing!

EPC

Happy First Day of Summer!

I’ll start off this week’s blog with an announcement: I have wrestled with the Internet (or at least my ISP’s portion) and won. My daily blog is now at Blog.EPCrowe.com! If you subscribed before this, you need to update your links. Go to the blog, scroll down on the left and click Entries (RSS).

Now to this week’s tip for beginners. In my book, Genealogy Online 8th Edition, I discuss many useful web sites. One of the best for genealogists of any level is the all-volunteer effort of WorldGenWeb.Org.

Here is a screen capture of the European WorldGenWeb page, which leads you to  British IslesGenWeb, CenEuroGenWeb, EastEuroGenWeb and the MediterraneanGenWeb regions.

The goal of the WorldGenWeb Project is to have every country in the world represented by an online website and hosted by researchers who either live the country represented or who are familiar with that country’s resources. The WorldGenWeb Project is a not-for-profit volunteer genealogical organization dedicated to the free access of genealogical information by anyone in the world. Each of the hosted countries maintains a system for submitting queries, for uploading transcribed or scanned documents, and help desks.  (NOTE: Once you are up and running with your genealogy, you can become a volunteer with the project!)

Use the WorldGenWeb to search for the information you need on your ancestors!

It’s time to talk about the elephant in the genealogy room.

Be aware that when you shake the family tree, all the apples fall out…and no matter how astonishing, they are all “good” ones. There will be revelations up there in the far reaches of the family tree. Ancestors who had secrets can startle not only the genealogist, but other family members.   And family members’ reactions, as well as your own, may also knock you for a loop!

For example, in this story from the Montreal Gazette, a genealogist discusses finding out his ancestor was a “not so nice Jewish boy” in the Mafia. And in my book, I discuss trying to find out about my husband’s Cherokee ancestor, but being stymied by the generation that considered that to be the family scandal, as well as the story of a woman whose in-laws got absolutely livid when she tried to trace their family tree.

And I heard of a couple who found out with the birth of their first child that the father’s family was African-American, but had been living as European-descended Americans for so long, the young father was completely unaware of it. Until the baby was born, that is.

So the point of today’s blog: Your ancestry may contain surprises. And that’s OK. You’re still you. And, as Steve Olson says in Mapping Human History:

“The greater the number of generations taken into account, the greater the possibility that any two people … are distant cousins. By the tenth generation back, almost all of us have circles of inheritance in our ancestry.”

I highly recommend reading Mapping Human History, by the way.

Until next week!

Libbi

Hello all!

Disasters, natural and self-inflicted, can hit your computer at any time. No matter whether you are keeping your genealogy data on index cards or the latest iMac, you must back up. Your choices are so varied, that it is silly not to!

If you are using paper, such as index cards or a notebook: Make photocopies. Store them at a relative’s house.

If you are using a computer, choose any or all of these:

1. Use a Thumb Drive to back up your databases at least once a week.
2. Write your data to CDROM C’mon. They’re cheap now!
3. Use an online service such as Xdrive, MozyHome, or iBackup. These services can backup specified directories automatically, so you don’t have to remember.
4. Use an external hard drive such as a MyBook.
5. Use a site such as Kindo to create a backup of your data.
6. Or print it all out and take it over to a relative’s house!!

Documentation and backup are essential. As I say in my book, Genealogy Online 8th Edition on these two principals hang all your effort and investment in genealogy. Next week, I’ll discuss documentation. Until then, happy hunting!

Hello again from Florida, USA!
In my book, Genealogy Online 8th Edition, I have a long section on the best way to write a query. Today I’m going to give you the quick version:

A query is a short entry in a publication, online bulletin board or letter that asks for specific information on an ancestor. It is sort of a “wanted” classified ad for genealogists.

The basics of the query are:

1. You must have a date, or range of dates
2. You must have a place, at least a region
3. You must have at least one name, best if it’s a surname.

The format of a query:

Looking for First Name LAST NAME OF ANCESTOR IN CAPS, <<specific data needed.>> Know this information: <<names and vital dates>>. Contact: Your email, snailmail, or other contact info.

So a good query will look something like this:

Query: CRIPPEN, 1794, CT>MA>VT>Canada

I need proof of the parents of Diadama CRIPPEN born 11 Sept 1794 in (?), NY. I believe her father was Darius CRIPPEN, son

of Samuel CRIPPEN, and her mother was Abigail STEVENS CRIPPEN, daughter of Roger STEVENS, both from CT. They lived in

Egremont, Berkshire County, MA and Pittsfield, Rutland County, VT before moving to Bastard Township, Ontario, Canada. I will

exchange information and copying costs. [Here you would put your regular mail address, e-mail address, or other contact

information.]

As you can see, just reading queries can often give you valuable information!

Note: Do not ever send a letter or query that says, “Send me everything you have on the Jones family” or words to that effect. This is not a game of Go Fish. It is rude and unfair to ask for someone to just hand over years of research. When you ask for information, have some data to exchange and a specific genealogy goal to fill. Also, always offer to pay copying and/or postage costs.

For a more detailed explanation, see Genealogy Online 8th Edition, pp 22 - 26. Oh, and my book is available on Kindle, too!

Happy Hunting!

Hello all!

I am Elizabeth Powell Crowe, known to my friends as “Libbi”.  I have a blog with news, hints and musings on genealogy.  And, I’m a writer as well as a genealogist, so of course I have a book, Genealogy Online 8th Edition. Just so you know a little about me, I live in Florida, USA. My family is scattered throughout Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, Texas, California, Florida, and North Carolina. Oh, and I probably have a ton of Powell relations in Missouri, as well, but I haven’t tracked them down yet.

So the reason I’m typing all this here is that I’ve been asked to do a weekly Genealogy Basics tip for this blog, and I’m happy to oblige. Now sometimes, I tend to talk about how the watch is made instead of what time it is, so if my entry leads to more questions than answers, just leave a comment and I’ll try to clear it all up!

So here is this week’s tip: Learn to search for genealogy in your pajamas. Use services from your local library, from sites such as Kindo, and other resources from your computer at home! For example, the British Library owns the world’s largest collection of research materials on many subjects, including genealogy. Using your computer you can access the BL by:

* British Library Direct: search 20,000 journals for free and order full text with your credit card.
* British Library Direct Plus: subscription based service containing   over 67,000 titles with full text ordered via a credit card or   account.

For information on all of their services, visit: http://www.bl.uk/articles.

Until Next Week!

Libbi

Some nice improvments on the navigation bar on the Kindo tree. The English users are enjoying it for quite some time already, but now it is live in all languages, so we wanted to let you all know about it.

We have redesigned the zoom bar and have split if of from the info box. The info box now shows the tree creator as well as the person, who’s tree you are seeing at the moment. And you still find the number of people in your tree there.

The zoom bar is now semi-transparent allowing you to still read whatever is underneath. It is ordered vertically and includes some navigation arrows at the bottom, so you now have three ways of moving the tree around:

• drag and drop the canvas to move it around
• click on the arrows to move the tree around
• use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate

And in the middle of the arrows there is a “home” button, which you can use to get back of the person, whose tree it is.