<p>From other posts, it seems some of you share my interest in genealogy. I’ve got a data base with over 2,000 names in it now and I’d like to put it up on the web. I wondered if anyone who has done this could tell me the pros and cons of various sites. Or just tell me which one you use and how happy you are with it. </p>
<p>One requirement is that I’m not willing to pay much–free would be even better.</p>
<p>I don’t want to use any website that is tied to a specific genealogy program. (I use the free PAF 5 from the Mormons and it works just fine. )</p>
<p>I’ve found a fair number of my ancestors on rootsweb and I’m tempted to go with it. However, it’s a bit TOO public. Since “mother’s maiden name” is a common security question, I’m hesitant about posting that information publicly. And while I’ve enjoyed exchanging emails and information with people I’ve “met” on line, I’d rather not get ten gazilllion emails from people who assume that anyone with the same last name MUST be related. </p>
<p>One of my distant relatives has a site on wwwDOTfamilytreeguideDOTcom. I like the look of his web site. This site just seems to be run by an individual. It’s free, but advertising is displayed. You can get rid of it for $40 a year. </p>
<p>Another site is wwwDOTgeniDOTcom This has a “premium” version which allows you to see if your tree has any matches with anyone else’s. I suspect that there aren’t that many “matches” out there yet since the site seems fairly new. (It only has 550 or so members.) But you seem to be able to create a tree for free. </p>
<p>I’d seen another one with the word tribe in it, but don’t seem to be able to find it now. </p>
<p>In any event, has anyone else done this? Thanks for any advice. PMs are fine.</p>
<p>I use Ancestry, and we pay for an annual membership–so that doesn’t fit your requirement that it be free. I find it easy to use, and I like the resources that are available. Several family members use the same subscription. I recently made the family tree public for the first time and reconnected with a long-lost third cousin who I hadn’t seen since childhood. But I am not sure I like having all that information public, and I may go private again.</p>
<p>We were fortunate to have inherited good family trees on both sides–but not 2,000 names! That’s impressive. My family consisted mostly of ordinary people leading regular lives, but it means a lot to find out more about who they were and where they (and I) came from.</p>
<p>I have an old version of my family tree up on the “Family Tree of the Jewish People” on the Jewish Genealogical Society webiste (jgs.org). You have to be a member, but a basic membership is free.</p>
<p>Of course, it helps to be Jewish!</p>
<p>I’ve been spending quite a bit of time this fall doing additional research, more so than I have in years, partly because a number of archives in both France and Germany have recently been putting thousands of old records online (as scanned images), including many Jewish records. And partly because it gives me a feeling of doing something at least arguably worthwhile to fill my empty nest! </p>
<p>My computerized program (I use Legacy, which cost me about $30.00 to buy and download a few years ago) has about 1000 names in it at this point (including the names of 209 direct ancestors, dating back to the 16th century in a couple of branches, which is really quite far back for someone Jewish), but I still have a couple of hundred more collateral relatives in my files whose names I need to input. Whenever I finish (not that I think I’ll ever really be finished), I’ll replace what’s on jgs now with an updated version.</p>
<p>I also belong to Ancestry, but I haven’t decided yet whether I want to upload my tree there at some point as well. For whatever reason, it feels less private than JGS. Although at both places, there’s an option to exclude living persons from public view. And there’s a great deal of inaccurate information on there about certain branches of my family – some of which looks like it came from me indirectly, many years ago (because it’s information nobody had but me) but somehow got garbled in the process of being passed on. I really ought to correct it. </p>
<p>Not to mention that there are a couple of trees up on Ancestry that mention me, but use an incorrect first name. I have <em>no</em> idea how that could have happened! At least, that’s how I’ve explained it to people when I’ve seen no need to disclose my personal medical history.</p>
<p>Although it is kind of too bad that I can no longer take credit for the several articles I wrote for Jewish genealogical journals many years ago, unless I do disclose my history. And that I’ve deliberately lost touch with all the distant cousins I found 10 or 15 years ago, simply because the idea of explaining what’s happened is too stressful and embarrassing for me to contemplate. </p>
<p>Oh well.</p>
<p>By the way, I believe it’s also possible on Ancestry to attach images of photos and documents to names in your family tree. Which I’d also love to do someday, since for my mother’s family I have original photos dating back to the late 1850’s in Pomerania, and to the 1870’s in Baden; on my father’s side I have photos going back to the 1880’s. It would be nice to share them. I’m not nearly as interested in simple lists of names and dates, as I am in finding out – where possible – about my ancestors’ actual lives.</p>
<p>It’s always a nice feeling to find something new, especially given that I pretty much exhausted the records of my family available in the U.S. many years ago, and since then have had to rely for the most part – until quite recently – on writing to European archives, finding people to do research in Europe, etc. </p>
<p>And you never do know what you’re going to find. Not long ago, I was rather startled to find copies of both the German and Hebrew versions of my maternal grandparents’ ketubah (marriage contract), from 1921, in an archive of Jewish synagogue and community records from Sulzburg (the town in Baden where my grandmother was born and where her family had lived at least as far back as 1720) – records confiscated by the Nazis 70 years ago, which the Baden-Wurttemberg Landesarchiv recently put online. (They really ought to return the records – but, to whom?) And I learned that my grandmother, in addition to her German name (Dora), also had a Yiddish/Hebrew name (Treinele), something I never knew and I don’t know if even my mother ever knew.</p>
<p>And also found, in an obscure German-language book about rural Jews in Southwest Germany in early modern times, at least a dozen different records (excerpted from the 18th-century Ratsprotokoll [city council records] from Emmendingen, another town in Baden where my family lived), of the interactions between the local government and the Parnas [president] of the Jewish community there, a cow trader named Jakob Weil (1690-1764) who happens to have been my maternal grandmother’s paternal grandmother’s paternal grandfather’s maternal grandfather. Including (as translated from German) these two examples:</p>
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<p>and</p>
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<p>And then there was the time in 1746 when he got in trouble for pulling his son-in-law’s hair because he was annoyed that the young man (who was living with his wife and her parents after they got married, until they could afford to have a house of their own) was always having his friends over and hanging out, and Jakob “couldn’t bear” having them there, “because even though his son-in-law lived there it was after all his house.” He paid a fine for that, too. (I’m descended from that very same daughter and son-in-law. And, by coincidence, am also descended from another young man who was present during the incident, through an entirely separate line.)</p>
<p>This is the sort of humanizing stuff I like to find – although obviously it’s pretty rare to be able to do so. And someday I’d like to be able to share all of that, something that isn’t really possible with only a simple family tree. Maybe I’ll have to start my own website one of these days.</p>
<p>Well…I have a “thing” about Ancestry.I’m really disappointed that it has acquired Footnote. I may not renew my Footnote subscription as a result. I use Ancestry for free in the library and have a distant relative who has a tree she invited me to see.( BTW, you can add photos, etc. on the free sites too. )</p>
<p>I’d really appreciate it if anyone who has some familiarity with one of these or another freebie site could comment. </p>
<p>I come from a very long line of very poor people :)! I agree it is fun to find out the “ordinary stuff.” One fun source I’ve found is union journals. Coincidentally, both my grandfathers belonged to the same union though they lived some distance from each other. One was the recording secretary of his local, so each time he moved, his new address was listed in the union journal. My father’s and my aunt’s births are both listed in the union journal. My grandmother’s death is listed in the union journal. Thanks to the journal, I know that my other grandfather was president of the union for a while, but had to quit when his wife became ill. It’s really touching to see the notice the recording secretary put in about her death.</p>
<p>If you’re not familiar with the union journals, they came out once a month or so. There was a brief report from every local stating whether there was any work available and what projects the union was working on. The reports are usually written by the recording secretary and signed with his name. When men didn’t pay their dues, they were dropped from the roles, and their names were published. </p>
<p>But the journals also covered national news–and believe me the coverage is a lot more “leftist” than that of the national press! It’s interesting (to me at least) to read the union’s take on different national issues. It genuinely tried to inform its members so they could cast an educated ballot. </p>
<p>Again, any testimonials pro or con any of the free or cheap site for posting your own research would be appreciated.</p>
<p>My sister uses ancestry and has uploaded pics etc- she is LDS and has extensively researched our tree- it is quite impressive and interesting- lots of creative thinkers/inventors/outlaws/artistic types- I guess ADHD is a genetic trait!</p>
<p>H uses Family Tree DNA. You have to pay for the DNA tests. Depending on how deep you go into testing, it costs $100 and up. You don’t have to pay separately for membership, but I believe only members (those who have paid for testing) can get into the details on their website. The branch H investigated was Irish/male line and it is incredible how complex this genetic info gets–like a foreign language to me. (Probably a lot more technical than what you’re looking for). H found that he genetically matches one particular family, but there is no one else with his last name in the group. This may indicate what they call a “non-parental event” (illegitimate birth, adoption, etc.)–where someone had a last name that didn’t belong to the biological father. </p>
<p>H’s grandma (mom’s side) was born in Mexico and always said that they were “pure Spanish and not a drop of Indian blood.” His aunt tested their female line and found that it was, indeed, Native American. (Grandma has been dead for years, so she never found out.) H would like to investigate his dad’s female line. They had a French name and had been in Louisiana since the 16/1700’s… H offered to pay for his female cousin to do the genetic test–and she refused! (He thinks she is afraid of finding African ancestry–which he thinks is likely.)</p>
<p>My family isn’t so interesting. All my grandparents were 20th century immigrants from the same country. My dad’s name has some noble history and a coat of arms which illustrates the source of the name–a story(legend?) of a brave knight saving the king back in the 11th century. (Apparently the family fortunes had fallen quite a bit by 1910 when grandpa, an illiterate peasant, came to America.) Other than that, I don’t even know any names beyond my great grandparents.</p>
<p>Sigh…I really thought someone on this site would have experience with one of the free or low programs. Anyone?</p>
<p>I’ve thought of doing the dna thing, but (a) from what I’ve heard it works better for males than females and (b) the DNA programs are limited to one surname or at least the ones I am familiar with are. </p>
<p>Hey, atomon, don’t think your family isn’t that interesting until you do some investigation. You never know what’s going to turn up–which is part of the fun! Even if you can’t go further back than great-grandparents–I can’t either on some lines–you can still find out “stuff” about them that’s interesting. </p>
<p>Donna, my problem with other software isn’t really the cost. It’s that it doesn’t update and isn’t compatible with newer versions. I have a friend who did her whole family tree using one kind of software. She stored it on a floppy disk–remember those? I put it onto a DVD for her, but I don’t have the program, so I can’t open it. She doesn’t have the program that created it any more and the current version can’t open it. So, she’s lost all the work she’s did way back when. Not fun. And you can’t send it to other people who don’t have the program unless you convert it to gedcom first. If you use the Mormon program, you can send it to people and tell them they can download the Mormon software for free to open it. They don’t have to go buy anything.</p>
<p>Given the history surrounding the issue, I’d be concerned that there’s some hidden feature of the LDS program that would automatically baptize all my ancestors. (And I’m only half-kidding.)</p>
<p>As far as other software like Legacy goes, you can always download updates from their website. And if you’re concerned about obsolescence, the program automatically converts everything to gedcom.</p>
<p>I haven’t publicly posted anything yet but have started using a program called “Reunion” that I like very much. You can scan in photos, add all kinds of notes, the people are linked (not sure that is right term). Really very fun and you can look at information in various forms (different charts, graphs, etc). I have burned what I have so far for some family members and they seemed to enjoy the information. </p>
<p>I have over 1000 names so far and many, many more not entered yet----it just grows and grows. </p>
<p>Through Ancestry I found a distant cousin in CA who has a garage full of photos, birth and death records, etc. He has been a wealth of information!</p>
<p>Jonri, I have worked using reunion for organization for years but do not want to put anything up on the web. I have travelled to places for in depth research. I created a few books for my parents while they were living with stories and photos and was able to read to them before they died. I have recently joined Ancestry just to see what I have missed and I am working on a “story” and needed easy references since I can’t access Ancestry at a nearby library where I live! I don’t like sharing details with just anyone unless it is in fictional format.</p>
<p>I promise the moderators I won’t bump this again, but I proudly announce I now have 3 trees up and running on one site. I’ve only issued a couple of invitations to people I want to take a look and give me feedback. </p>
<p>I really couldn’t believe how easy it was! </p>
<p>I do understand the concerns about privacy, but…the sites do let you limit who can see your site. You can choose different levels of security. I am willing to let some names be seen in the hope that I get some “hits.” Heck, half the stuff on my tree is there because somebody else found it first. (I have verified info because a lot is wrong. Still, it is easier to check a citation that says “my” John Smith married Ann Johnson in 1903 than it is to FIND a marraige of two people with common surnames when you don’t know the date.) Having “mooched” for so long, I feel some obligation to “give back.” </p>
<p>I thought of Donna though because one site is run by someone who is Mormon. He has my permission to baptise any ancestors we have in common. I don’t believe post-death baptism does a darn thing, and I look at it as the price I willingly pay for the great job the Mormons do preserving records which would otherwise be lost.( I’m not Jewish and acknowledge that I might feel differently if I were.)</p>
<p>So jonri, which site did you use? I hope soon I will be able to post mine. Like you, I have gathered information from many other people and would like to “pay back”.</p>
<p>jonri, regarding your friend’s data that you can’t access, did you try to google the incompatible file extension (e.g. *.rtf for text files) or the original name of the generating genealogy software program name (e.g. “Family Tree Maker”) to see if someone has written a converter? Tucows is a good source for free/shareware. You could check there too.</p>
<p>I agree with you about the Mormons. They have done a great service for the world in documenting so many records.</p>
<p>I think I’ll try the DNA testing. I’m just too curious, and I think that my Dad’s DNA would provide some interesting data, as his parents both came from small rural villages in different parts of Europe.</p>