FamilySearch Research Pilot down for maintenance

The FamilySearch Research Pilot will be off line for maintenance on June 1, 2009 for approximately 24 hours. This follows another recent maintenance issue. Keep posted and I will see if there are any changes to the system in the next few days.

Genealogy steadily down on Google Trends

Google Trends is an innovative Website that shows how frequently a topic has been searched on Google over time. It also shows how frequently topics have appeared in Google News stories and which geographic regions are making the search.

To quote Google Trends,

Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. We then show you a graph with the results – our Search Volume Index graph.

Above is a graph showing a search for the two terms; genealogy (blue) and "family history" (red). It should be interesting to all genealogists that the trend is definitely downward from 2004 to the present. There has been a steady but significant decline in the searches on the Web for these terms. The drop in searches for genealogy is more significant.

Interestingly, the same downward trend appears for a search of the term "familysearch" except the number of searches is much more volatile.

The above graph shows the search term, "familysearch" but the overall trend is down.

I am puzzled as to the reason for the downward trend, but I speculate that overall traffic on the Internet is growing so rapidly and the amount of information is so immense, that genealogy is being overshadowed by other online interests. Google Trends may be a more accurate view of the real interest in genealogy, as opposed to commonly quoted statements about genealogy being the most popular or one of the most popular hobbies in the U.S. However, the explanation may be more simple, when was the last time you did a Google search for the term "genealogy?"

What's next? the DataFerrett

DataFerrett is a free tool that allow you to explore data, create spread sheet tables, graphs, maps, pdf documents and dowload from datasets that are published to TheDataWeb. Ferrett stands for Federated Electronic Research, Review, Extraction & Tabulation Tool. To quote the site:

TheDataWeb is a network of online data libraries that the DataFerrett accesses the data through. Data topics include, census data, economic data, health data, income and unemployment data, population data, labor data, cancer data, crime and transportation data, family dynamics, vital statistics data, . . . As a user, you have an easy access to all these kinds of data. As a participant in TheDataWeb, you can publish your data to TheDataWeb and, in turn, benefit as a provider to the consumer of data.

The DataFerrett is a product of the U.S. Census Bureau. The official unveiling of the Community Economic Development (CED) HotReport http://ced.census.gov took place on July 17, in Kansas City, MO. The groundbreaking product is the work of the Census Bureau’s Data Integration Division. HotReports utilize TheDataWeb, DataFerrett and ReportWriter technology to retrieve and analyze data from myriad data sets in- and outside of the Census Bureau and display it visually on interactive web pages.

Good question, what is this and why would I care? It is just another way to get information out of the U.S. Government.

Want to know something? Want to know anyting? Everything?

Now you can know everything, theoretically speaking. All you have to do is go to the U.S. Government's new Data.gov Website. Although the site is very new and still hasn't gotten ALL of the information available from the Government, it is a start in that direction. As the Website states:

The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Although the initial launch of Data.gov provides a limited portion of the rich variety of Federal datasets presently available, we invite you to actively participate in shaping the future of Data.gov by suggesting additional datasets and site enhancements to provide seamless access and use of your Federal data. Visit today with us, but come back often. With your help, Data.gov will continue to grow and change in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

The Government goes on to say:

Data.gov includes searchable catalogs that provide access to "raw" datasets and various tools. In the "raw" data catalog, you may access data in XML, Text/CSV, KML/KMZ, Feeds, XLS, or ESRI Shapefile formats. The catalog of tools links you to sites that include data mining and extraction tools and widgets. Datasets and tools available on Data.gov are searchable by category, agency, keyword, and/or data format. Once in the catalog, click on the "name" (i.e, the name of the dataset or tool of interest) and you will be taken to a page with more details and metadata on that specific dataset or tool. Please note that by accessing datasets or tools offered on Data.gov, you agree to the Data Policy, which you should read before accessing any data. If there are additional datasets that you would like to see included on this site, please suggest more datasets here. For more information on how to use Data.gov.

Even though most of the data is in "raw" format, there are links to the agency Websites with charts and graphs and tables enough to warm a researcher's heart. Of course, all of the information was previously available in some format somewhere in a file cabinet in a government office, but now there is a commitment to make the data available to all on the Internet.

Of what use is all this to family historians and genealogists? Just try some of the searches on for size; one link takes you to the National Center for Health Statistics and the 1990 to 2006 Perinatal Mortality tables. Time will tell, but it looks like this is a major new source of information about all things coming out of the government.

Comments on technology -- obstacle or benefit

I was surprised at the number of comments on my recent post, "Technology, obstacle or benefit to genealogy" Elizabeth Shown Mills took a lot of her valuable time to make extensive comments which are much appreciated. I would strongly recommend reading her comments, they are insightful and give an entirely different perspective to some of the issues I raised in my post.

I do have several observations, genealogy is still highly paper (hard copy) oriented. I do understand Ms. Mills perspective and appreciate the need for a printed copy, especially as she points out, of the applications in the context she indicates. One of the major problems in college classes being taught today is plagiarism. Our local community college, where my brother and I have taught for years, has a program that will compare any paper submitted by a student to the Internet and find anyplace the student may have copied the information. This program works almost instantly to reveal copied material. Despite the existence of that program, many students still submit entirely copied material each semester. One drawback of working from paper copies is that this source of verification is not easily available. In these college classes the students now submit all their work online, so this verification process is easy.

Notwithstanding all of the practical reasons for having a paper copy, I predict that paper copies will become something of the past in the not too distant future.

In another comment, Ms. Mills talks bout the size limit imposed by the Board for Certification of Genealogists for their applications. Size limitations make perfect sense. I an easily generate thousands of pages of documents from my computer and use them as "exhibits" to any report I create. It would, of course, be highly questionable whether or not anyone would care to look through all of the documents. I deal with page and length limitations every time I file an appellate brief with the Court of Appeals. I certainly understand the need to say what you have to say subject to time and length limitations.

I am very appreciative of any and all comments. Thanks for the response.

MyBlood does support LDS ordinances

Apparently, although it is not obvious or even mentioned in the documentation, LDS ordinance tags are available in MyBlood. In a comment from the programmer, I am reminded why I was impressed with the program in the first place, it has ALL of the GEDCOM tags implemented.

My Blood moves to Beta 1

The European genealogy database program, MyBlood, has moved from the alpha stage to Beta 1 testing. Although there is a charge for the Beta program, the license key is supposed to be good for all of the release versions of the program. MyBlood is developed for PC and Mac. It uses 99% of the same code for PC and Mac, and runs on Mac OS X 10.5 for Intel and PowerPCs as well as Windows XP and Vista.

Interestingly, the program comes with the tools to be translated into any language. It comes with Dutch, French, English, German and Spanish.

The program also has extensive documentation and video tutorials. It does not appear to support LDS ordinance data. I have found that some of the European based programs do not provide LDS support. Even if you are not sympathetic to the LDS Church, it is a fact of life that a major component of the genealogical interest worldwide, stems from the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and omitting even optional support for LDS ordinances severely limits the market for the program.