RootsTech Submission - Finally!

This weekend was busy with class deadlines, recovering from a stomache bug, work at home, and of course the excitement of Genedocs submission for the RootsTech 2012 Developers Challenge.

The Submission:

This year I elected to provide an interactive version of the Genedocs Hybrid Chart (will be elaborated on in February) that both beginners, intermediate, and seasoned family researchers could hopefully appreciate using MS Excel.

Simply, you enter some data and it shows up on other sheets more organized; ancestors, siblings, insert pportraits and source docs, and wham! You have your first chart. Save it under a new name and print if you like. Start over with your next three ancestors for as far as you like or can go.

Since I am learning more in Data Analysis this year at college using Excel, I am getting some helpful new knowledge on tricks I hadn't even dreamed of using yet, sot there are bound to be some impressive and useful improvments as always, but I am working those in MS EXcel 2010 and the Hybrid has only gone to Excel 2003 so far!

Prize money would literally be a lifesaver from the 1K 2K or 5K places, but it is mainly for the fun of the challenge. Fingers crossed and wish Genedocs good luck in the coming weeks when finalists and the winner are selected and announced at RootsTech.

2012 Leisure Series Form Resequence

Welcome to the 2012 Leisure Series of Genedocs

In lieu of rehashing the monthly Genedocs E-magazine I have posted or e-mailed since 2009, the Genedocs blog will now serve nicely as the new reader forum for monthly featured forms. If time allows, I will also try to include a bonus form and a series exclusive.

In past years I elected to begin with the Ancestor Outline List, but this year, I will be shuffling the Pedigree Map View to the forefront of the spotlight. This is mainly due to the fact that sibling data is, more often than not, key to knocking down many of the brick walls we all end up facing somewhere in our family tree. Why are siblings of ancestors so vital to this most frustrating obstacle in our family history vernacular? First, siblings lead to one amazing thing in our research - living cousins! When we trace the descendancy of siblings of our ancestors, we can't help but stumble into a real live person we can claim as our newest cousin who very often has the same desire to know more, may have a mass of family data and precious photos of their own, and, if you are lucky, even a network of other cousins or other relatives who may be able to and will to help you out.

It only takes a basic understanding of Microsoft Excel to plug in names into cells and format line colors of cell borders and before long you have an amazing reference tool that most genealogists don't even know about! Here is an example image...

The PMV is a great intro tool for several reasons:

- It is visually appealing with a new look
- It effectively combines ancestor data and sibling data
- It can be as detailed or as simple as its designer desires
- Any researcher exponentailly increasese their odds of craking the case with the PMV!


On the other hand the Ancestor outline list (pictured below) is a pretty plain although also useful key form especially for beginners.

Stay tuned - next week I'll be going into the awesome organizational power of the Folder Cover Sheet/Tabs and At-A-Glance Improved File Labels for both physical and digital storage methods.

Let 2012 Begin with a Bang!

First I must say that it is nice to see 13 followers of my new blog so thanks for following!

What will 2012 bring for Genedocs? It has been a bit hectic starting school again (why two weeks went by in January without a post;-), but exciting things have been going on in many areas:

Sister published her first music CD so if you love jazz, contemporary, or classical flute and small ensemble work, please check it out on CDbaby.com.

That's it for the shameless plug, but she is my last living blood relative!

Security at Genedocs is understandably tight these days as RootsTech 2012 is also brewing to its 2nd year start. Genedocs is participating in the Developers Challenge (if Jim Ericson and crew can get the e-mail details out before whoa... tomorrow! I need to cut this short and check e-mail again;-) Anyway, as wonderful as it would be to attend the conference in person, there are still ways to be involved, blogging, following blogs, and planning for this and next years innovations for instance.

Ancestorville on facebook remains a great place for family networking and photo enhancement - here is a fine example from Candace Milsop and her son John who fixed great grandmother Johnnie (Gause) Dawes' shattered image as a 6-year old very well.

Candy's version:

Google Maps still useful (Use Global Streetview!:

This photo may be of Charlotta Swensdtr a sister of my great great grandfatehr Victor G Edlund. She supposedly also came to America, but no idea if she survived since ports and censuses don't list her. But the back of the photo was key in telling me where this lady was at one point. using Google maps and a simple search of the word on the reverse I end up with a street view of where the photo shop was!

Post Holiday Gearing Up for 2012!

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As we prepare to bid 2011 a fond goodbye, I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas or other celebrated holida this December and know my like-minded genealogy friends are already ramping up for a spectacultar 2012. A few major events in store for the coming year are:

- - 2012 Reslease: The 1940 U.S. Census (72 years in the making!)
.....via The National Archives and Ancestry.com

- - February's 2nd Annual roots Tech Conference in Salt Lake City, UT

- - April's National Archives Genealogy Fair in Washington D.C.

- - May's NGS Annual Conference in Cincinati OH

I can't wait to see where my mother and her parents were in 1940 (suspect OK from Nana's journal of their 73 moves from 1935 - 1946!)

Genedocs is participating in the 2012 Roots Tech Challenge although not able to attend personally - I will be following the e-casts.

Working for the National Arichives now, I should be able to find a way to participate in this years DC Genealogy Fair???

It would be nice to get out to OH - we'll see.

Have a great year!

Genedocs joins Geneabloggers

___2011 GENEDOCS STATS:

---------334 Friends of "Genedocs Wetpaint" on facebook

----------76 Members at Genedocs.wetpaint

----------24 Members at gdinnovativformslibrary.wetpaint.com

----------A few more followers of Genedocs on Twitter


Well, it finally happened - yours truly has joined the masses of die hard Genealogists known as Geneabloggers. You only need to publish a genealogy related blog or read them to join - then a few simple steps later you are sporting a nifty logo on your blog, have a blogiversery on file, new followers jump up to see what your blog is all about (thanks you six new ones!)and so forth.

Anyway, as the Christmas and 2012 are fast approaching I, as many others passionate about genealogy continue to dream up ways to improve genealgy and one day even hope to make a living at it. I chose to take on the roots tech challenge for 2012 to see how biz-ready genedocs may actually be since facebook and twitter followings alone a profitable buiness do not make. My apologies Yoda and Thoreau! Seriously there are fascinating and daunting challenges to starting a business in genealogy...

..

1. How do you get paid - quick and per click with pay pal or another means - setting up the pricing scheme with Pay pal buttons was interesting to explore earlier this year!

2. Will you offer merely services to avoid dealing with mandatory taxes on physical goods? Good to know from managaing both a busy cemetery office and a proifitable records management company.

3. What niche will you specialize in that is more than a trend (that has room to grow for decades if not centuries within the family research community)? On-line research, charting and tools, Graphics and 3-D, Animations and movies? So much to choose from!

4. What are the time proven foundations that technology will and will not influence your niche and others key to what market segment you want to focus on?

5. Has anybody asked you to provide something AND offered to pay or are you driven toward a non-profit/volunteer/RAOGK status?


To all of you out there pondering these and other Genbiz questions - just make an outline, decide what to charge that will keep you very afloat, and go for it! Genedocs will also be aiming for just that in 2012!

There's always more to learn so Merry Christmas and have a safe and Happy Dec and 2012!

- Eric /Founder

The Future of Genealogy - Part II

Genedocs is a program committed to vast improvements in the areas of family research and legacy preservation, but what does that mean to the future for you?

Will you shed tears of joy upon hearing the recorded voice of your mother captured on an answering machine by a distant cousin?

Will you revel in watching numerous videos of your family throughout the decades of your upbringing, own adult and parenthood to leave a priceless personal gift of you for countless generations?

Will the family tree charts you leave behind be both physically and digitally preserved with unbelievably comprehensive details of the lives of not only yourself, but also your close and extended relatives and attach a journal of journey authored by you?

Will your grandchildrens' smart phones have saved videoconference files of you and other family members?

These are just some of the amazing possibilites Genedocs hopes to bring to fruition much to the enjoyment of generations to come.

I can only wish that you will also join Genedocs in making them an outstanding reality!

The Future of Genealogy

What will people interested in family research and trees be working on in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, or 50 or even 100 years from now?


The speed at which new technology applications are pouring out into mainstream product offerings, it is somedays hard to fathom what more we could do... the decades old Star Trek Communicators were only a few years ago flip cell phones and in nearly everyones hands while today I phones, Ipads, and e-readers dominate, so much of what many people are doing and also doing with genealogy. This is likely where Genedocs begins to fit in...


In 2006 there was no practical family tree chart that combined the ease of use of a pedigree chart with the key sibling information housed in family group sheets...oh how quickly that changed as an improved pedigree template blossomed into The Genedocs Hybrid Chart available in nearly 10 versions today. (still working out the kinks of the last couple;-)


The tools like pedigree charts, research logs, and family group sheets will soon meld into single customizable applications which will be initially dominated by voice analysis and dictation programs like Dragon and others. (You can already reply to texts via voice activated replys!)

And then there is the 6G network we all secretly crave...so fast that the computers we work with will actually read our minds and seek out our ancestry when we can't (at work, during sleep) and send us e-mails of the finds for us to aknowledge or disclaim at our leisure. This seems a bit impersonal at first is what crossed my mind, but what price isn't a geneaholic willing to pay for that next ancestor photo find, brick wall busting clue, or cousin link to the descentants tree of Adam and Eve?

Until then I give you Genedocs in one of its finest hours...on facebook as Genedocs Wetpaint.

Safe and Relaxing Holidays to All!


Still Telepathetically Yours,

Eric