tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post155600232971190887..comments2024-03-21T19:08:05.737-07:00Comments on Genealogy's Star: Comments on The Future of Online Family TreesJames Tannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02989059644120454647noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-77841186751900988822018-12-10T17:52:26.283-07:002018-12-10T17:52:26.283-07:00Dear Anonymous, DNA testing requires all of the pr...Dear Anonymous, DNA testing requires all of the procedures you outline and a well documented family tree to resolve genealogical problems such as end of line issues. Very few of those companies selling DNA kits instruct their purchasers about these extra procedures that are necessary. My comment is directed at the companies that sell DNA kits. There are some companies that are making significant progress in this regard, such as MyHeritage. James Tannerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02989059644120454647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-78107798972470736352018-12-10T11:04:37.119-07:002018-12-10T11:04:37.119-07:00Enjoyed both articles about the future of online t...Enjoyed both articles about the future of online trees. I would love to see a rating system. Also want to give a shout out to Gigatrees. It really is quite a good program.ncatonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14083564837601234120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-18402384418121972732018-12-10T08:19:26.298-07:002018-12-10T08:19:26.298-07:00With due respect, your statement, Dna is "far...With due respect, your statement, Dna is "far more limited than portrayed", is an indication you do not, and have not, done any segment matching, have never found an NPE, know little about the science of dna, and do not appreciate its advent in law enforcement. JMHO<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-36804973286500399962018-12-06T07:26:39.783-07:002018-12-06T07:26:39.783-07:00What a great comment. Thanks for letting me know a...What a great comment. Thanks for letting me know about your work. I will check out your website. If you come to RootsTech please look me up. I will most likely be either at the media hub or at The Family History Guide booth. Keep in touch. James Tannerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02989059644120454647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-6269590439653786032018-12-03T21:59:01.616-07:002018-12-03T21:59:01.616-07:00James, excellent article. I am a regular follower ...James, excellent article. I am a regular follower of your blog. I also read Tony Proctor's article previously. I was especially pleased to see you promoting the idea of ranked assessments for individual genealogical claims. I attended a lecture where Judy G. Russell referred to these in one form as logical qualifiers. I write genealogy applications that make extensive use of these, which I refer to as reliability assessments and where they represent the likelihood that a particular claim is true based upon the referenced sources, and the properties of that source such as its type and its category. I assign reliability assessments automatically to EVERY claim and present them, in family trees, alongside each. Links to sources are also presented. My reliability assessments are defined as: "unsupported", "estimated", "unreliable", "uncertain", "proposed", "reported", "supported", "probable", "certain", "questionable", "proven" and "impossible" (users can change the actual display names). Visitors can use this information to better determine for themselves which claims are well supported by evidence. Using reliability assessments allows genealogists to also include negative evidence ("impossible") and multiple single-occurrence events, such as birth, death, etc. without having to draw conclusions. Conclusions can be left up to the visitor. Reliability assessments force genealogies to become evidence based. Claims without sources specifically state that they are "unsupported". In order for reliability assessments to be the most accurate, users do need to configure source types and/or categories. GEDCOM does not include this support out of the box, however I allow users to configure these via a configuration file so that they do not need to modify their GEDCOM file. I have been able to offer dozens of other new capabilities as well by allowing users to extend their GEDCOM file via configuration, including privacy flags, evidence models, GPS categories, defining DNA relatives, text replacement, advanced image handling, integrated blogging and embedded referencing to name just a few. When genealogists use applications (like mine) that promote sound genealogical evidence-based paradigms, and when more developers begin to add these features into their applications, I don't think there is any reason to think that the future of online family trees is in jeopardy. <br /><br />Tim Forsythe<br />http://gigatrees.comAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04850497982348789390noreply@blogger.com