Thursday, July 31, 2008

Indexed Records to Remain Free on FamilySearch.org

FamilySearch issued the following statement earlier this week to clarify the announcement of its partnerships with Ancestry.com and findmypast.org the previous week.


 

Indexed Records to Remain Free on FamilySearch.org

28 July 2008

The recent announcements of joint census projects with FamilySearch and affiliate companies, such as findmypast.org and Ancestry.com, have caused some confusion. FamilySearch patrons and indexing volunteers are wondering if the indexes created from their efforts will continue to be free to the public. The answer is a resounding YES!

All data indexed by FamilySearch volunteers will continue to be made available for free to the public through FamilySearch.org—now and in the future. Access to related digital images may not always be free to everyone. Working jointly with other organizations ensures wider availability to improved indexes and provides a tremendous benefit to millions of people around the world who are seeking to connect with their ancestors. FamilySearch is committed to working with records custodians around the world to provide faster access to more records for more people.

Where possible, FamilySearch will seek to provide free public access to digital images of original records. Due to affiliate obligations, free access to some images may be available only to FamilySearch members (volunteers and indexers who meet basic contribution requirements each quarter, patrons at Family History Centers, and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who’s contributions support FamilySearch’s operations). FamilySearch members will also enjoy convenient access in their homes or wherever they have Internet access. (FamilySearch is currently developing its ability to verify that users are FamilySearch members for future home access. This expanded access should be enabled in 2009.)

The general public will have several options to access any fee-based images offered under FamilySearch affiliate agreements. 1) Home access will be free for FamilySearch members; 2) access is free through a local Family History Center or the Family History Library; 3) access is often free through the record custodian or archive reading room; or 4) for a nominal fee, the public can access the images on specified record custodian or commercial Web sites.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

NFS Rollout News for 30-July-2008

I'm baa-ack!

I felt sorry for Randy when he took a week off during NGS (or was it FGS?) and missed a couple of announcements. I take two weeks off and come home to find the laws of nature changed!! But enough about the Ancestry.com/FamilySearch.org partnership (for now). First, it's high time I caught you up on the New FamilySearch (NFS) rollout!

New FamilySearch Rollout Map for 29-Jul-2008

The Teeter Has Totted

Do you remember walking the length of a teeter-totter with no one on the other end? When you pass the half-way point, the far end drops. Well, while I was gone the NFS teeter-totter dropped! We've now passed the half-way point with 69 out of 126 operating temples using the New FamilySearch.

While I was gone Recife Brazil went live, completing all 5 temples in Brazil. This ties Australia for the country with the most temples completely switched over to New FamilySearch. Only Mexico and the United States have more temples and neither is completely switched over.

Buenos Aires also went live. Along with Brazil, that completes 6 of 10 South American countries with temples.

Europe had 4 temples go live: Frankfurt, Freiberg, Denmark and Finland. Sweden and the Netherlands are rumored to go live next Tuesday, which will finish all of continental Europe, leaving the 2 temples in England before I consider the entire continent technically complete.

Two Pacific island temples went live, the first since the 2 in Hawaii. They were Manila Philippines and Apia Samoa.

Coming up in August President Monson will dedicate 2 new temples. Panama is scheduled for 10-August-2008 and will likely use NFS right out of the gate as most other new temples. Twin Falls Idaho is scheduled for 24-August-2008 and might not use NFS right away. Rexburg Idaho isn't using it, is it? I'm thinking that as Rexburg went, so will Twin Falls. But then again, maybe the fix for the IOUS problem will be in place by then.

That the "In Transition" information is not official was made clear when Lima Peru didn't go live on 15-June as rumored. I don't number that table because I'm too lazy to renumber it each week. But for those of you who like to know, there are 26 temples that are publicly (but unofficially) known to be in transition. The list is getting short enough (which is exciting!) that maybe one day I'll start.

The number of temples for which no news is known is also getting small enough that I'm going to list all of them. I'm adding them to the "News About Other Temple Districts" section of my Temple Districts Using New FamilySearch article.

Let me know when New FamilySearch is coming to your town. Even though I'm now an Insider, I can only share information after you tell me it is publicly known. I understand that to mean announcements made to all family history consultants, priesthood leaders or public meetings. (Sorry; I can't share information gleaned from temple workers or support missionaries since I consider these sources to be private.) Contact me at AncestryInsider@gmail.com.

Update 1-Aug-2008

My mistake. Lima Peru was released after all.

Papeete Tahiti Apia Samoa Nuku alofa Tonga Suva Fiji Johannesburg South Africa Aba Nigeria Accra Ghana Anchorage Alaska Edmonton Alberta Cardston Alberta Kona Hawaii Manila Philippines Hong Kong China Taipei Taiwan Seoul Korea Fukuoka Japan Tokyo Japan Cebu Philippines Hamilton New Zealand Melbourne Australia Adelaide Australia Perth Australia Brisbane Australia Sydney Australia Laie Hawaii Santiago Chile Montevideo Uruguay Buenos Aires Argentina Asunción Paraguay Porto Alegre Brazil Curitiba Brazil Campinas Brazil São Paulo Brazil Recife Brazil Cochabamba Bolivia Lima Peru Guayaquil Ecuador Bogotá Colombia Caracas Venezuela Manaus Brazil Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Guatemala City Guatemala San Jose Costa Rica Panama City Panama Quetzaltenango Guatemala San Salvador El Salvador Tegucigalpa Honduras Merida México Villahermosa México Tuxtla Gutlerrez México Oaxaca México Veracruz México México City México Guadalajara México Tampico México Monterrey México Hermosillo Sonora México Colonia Juárez Chihuahua México Ciudad Juárez México Madrid Spain Bern Switzerland The Hague Netherlands Preston England London England Frankfurt Germany Freiberg Germany Kiev Ukraine Copenhagen Denmark Stockholm Sweden Helsinki Finland Vancouver British Columbia Regina Saskatchewan Halifax Nova Scotia Montreal Quebec Toronto Ontario Palmyra New York Boston Massachusetts Manhattan New York Washington D.C. Louisville Kentucky Memphis Tennessee Nashville Tennessee Raleigh North Carolina Columbia South Carolina Atlanta Georgia Birmingham Alabama Orlando Florida Detroit Michigan Kirtland Columbus Ohio Chicago Illinois Nauvoo Illinois St. Louis Missouri Winter Quarters Nebraska St. Paul Minnesota Bismarck North Dakota Oklahoma City Oklahoma Lubbock Texas Dallas Texas Houston Texas San Antonio Texas Baton Rouge Louisiana Denver Colorado Billings Montana Boise Idaho Twin Falls Idaho Rexburg Idaho Idaho Falls Idaho Albuquerque New Mexico Snowflake Arizona Gila Valley Arizona Gilbert Arizona Phoenix Arizona Mesa Arizona Spokane Washington Columbia River Washington Seattle Washington Portland Oregon Medford Oregon Reno Nevada Las Vegas Nevada Fresno California Sacramento California Oakland Californai Redlands Californai Los Angeles California Newport Beach Californai San Diego California St. George Utah Monticello Utah Vernal Utah Logan Utah Manti Utah Provo Utah Mount Timpanogos Utah Draper Utah Salt Lake Bountiful Utah Ogden Utah Jordan River Utah Oquirrh Mountain Utah

Friday, July 25, 2008

Never Received the NFS Training DVD?

It seems to be a common experience that family history consultants in districts switching to New FamilySearch (FNS) are informed of the existence of a training DVD, but never receive it or find it.

This post is representative:

About three weeks ago, the FH consultants in our ward received an email announcing that our temple would begin nfs in September. The memo stated that we would receive a training [DVD] via our bishop or HPGL. We have yet to receive such a [DVD] and no one seems to know anything about it. Can those on the list who have been through this beginning procedure tell me how they obtained the [DVD] and what kind of training was on it?

Thx Gay Davis

If you find yourself in this predicament, there are a couple of ways to access the contents of the DVD online. According to Alan Jones, the DVD has the following on it:

PDF files:
Benefits of New Temple and Family History Process
Overview with Elder Jensen
Questions and Answers

Videos:
New FamilySearch and Temple and Name Submission Process
Questions and Answers with Elder Marlin K. Jensen
Benefits of the New Temple and Family History Process

To access these items on the Internet, follow these steps, suggested by Christine Meagher:

  • Sign onto http://new.familysearch.org
  • Then click on Help Center.
  • Near the top of the page, click on the rightmost tab named Training & Resources. (This tab is only available to registered family history consultants and priesthood leaders.)
  • Under General Training, click on New FamilySearch Rollout Packets. The 3 PDF files mentioned above are listed at the bottom of the window.
  • To access the 3 videos listed above, click on New FamilySearch and Temple Name Submission Process Video, either in this window or in the previous window.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Future of Ancestry.com

An anonymous commenter left this message:

Congrats Insider - very nice move.

Once the church has indexed as much as Ancestry what to you suppose will happen? (since the church [FamilySearch] gives away the info for free and Ancestry charges) Is Ancestry.com doomed in one year, five, or ten?

Thank you. If you were a good brown-noser you would have said, "Now that you are gone... is Ancestry doomed?" :-)

Seriously, Ancestry will do just fine without me. And the issue you raise is a good one, although Google may be a more serious threat than FamilySearch. FamilySearch is forging partnerships with 3rd parties that encourage the 3rd parties to share indexes and make their money by charging for access to images.

Even without cooperation from FamilySearch, the vast quantity of records out there will allow coexistence for many, many years. The truth is, new records are being created faster than genealogy companies can assimilate them. We're falling further and further behind. The problem is particularly challenging for FamilySearch, whose clientele is growing quickly in countries that aren't economically interesting to the likes of Ancestry. If commercial companies are not going to help in poor countries, FamilySearch will be left alone to shoulder the burden.

Back to Google. I think Ancestry realizes that Google, FamilySearch, new competition and government sources are pressuring the price of content towards zero. If content becomes free and ubiquitous, what can a company like Ancestry do to provide a service that customers might want to pay for? In my opinion, the answer is trees. More specifically, Ancestry has to provide an environment where customers can form a community that is mutually beneficial. Ancestry provides the framework. Members add value. The community benefits.

Allowing users to link images of source documents to events in their trees is ground breaking. It's powerful. Now they make suggestions to users based on the trees, people and record linkages of other users. Ancestry is currently the sole vendor in this area and is light-years ahead of anyone else. This is powerful, powerful stuff which I'm sure has not gone unnoticed by other big players or potential players in this field. If you've read Ancestry's announcements on the growth rate for the number of trees, people in those trees and record links to those people, the momentum is astonishing.

Hat's off to Tim Sullivan, Kendall Hulet and those at Ancestry that saw this vision of the future. And hats off to the rest of my buddies and coworkers who have worked extra hard, rushing forward to make the future become a present reality. Be it one year, five or ten, with visionary, creative, hardworking people like these, Ancestry will never be doomed.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

FamilySearch Certified

FamilySearch is offering certification for products that use their new API system to allow 3rd-party interaction with New FamilySearch (NFS). The first certification that I know about was announced recently by Janet Hovorka of Generation Maps.

FamilySearch Cetified Logo

Click here to see Hovorka's blog entry for more information.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

NFS Rollout News for 22-July-2008

I'm afraid I have a little confession to make. Since my last day of work at Ancestry on 11-July-2008, I have been out of town on vacation. I haven't been checking my e-mail. I haven't been posting any blog articles. All the articles you've been reading were writen before I left and scheduled for posting.

Hey, I didn't want you to miss me. ;-)

Unfortunately, my absence means that you didn't get an NFS rollout update last week and you won't get another this week, either. My tables and maps have gone unchanged as well, which never happens. Usually you get daily updates to the tables. Maybe Renee can post something after today's rollout and update you.

I'll be back to start work on 28-July-2008. I'll be in touch as soon as I can after that. And in the meantime, I've got some good stuff queued up for you each weekday for the remainder of this week.

Stay tuned...

Monday, July 21, 2008

More Problems Viewing Images

I received several comments on my post Ancestry Image Viewer Bug Fixed. One person wrote,

I am still having problems. I have viewed my tree, deleted cookies, and temp files. I also deleted my tree.

I have reported the problem to Ancestry 4 times and they say they are working on it.

I am trying to access The New Castle News (Pennsylvania) but continue to get "Error Processing Image".

Is anyone else having the same problem?

My response:

Dear New Castle News reader,

Actually, I shouldn't say "reader" if you can't see the images to read them.

Software bugs and fixes are a bit like diseases and medications. Deleting cookies is a bit like aspirin that works for a wide variety of minor ailments. That was a good thing to try.

But the medicine for the Endless-Install Viewer bug is quite different than your "Error Processing Image" sickness. Viewing your tree and deleting your tree are great medications for the Endless-Install bug, but aren't going to help your disease at all.

I need to catch this disease you're afflicted with. Tell me the exact steps leading to your bug. If I can catch it too, I might be able to tell you more about your ailment.

-- The Ancestry Insider

Firefox Image Viewer

Another user wrote,

How about a fix for this Image Viewer bug, now well over a year old a year old?????

http://boards.ancestry.com/thread.aspx?mv=tree&m=9152&p=topics.ancestry.ancsite

This message board message reads,

New image viewer crashes Firefox

I loaded up the new image viewer the other day. Now, Firefox crashes about 50% of time when viewing an image, plus I cannot view any image unless I hit "togge full screen"

Remarkably, the Ancestry developer of the Firefox image viewer got online and offered to help anyone having problems. The thread went on and on and the developer stopped responding.

A developer's time is not his own and while he may be available for bug fixes in the days immediately following the release of a project, once the developer moves on to other projects, he's not really supposed to come back and work on something that's not assigned to him.

I should note that some developers feel a strong sense of ownership over code they write and will gladly slip bug fixes in at anytime. I don't know if this one does or not. In any case, to do so requires that the developer is able to find the bug. Needles and haystacks, you understand.

Actually, it is far worse. There is an entire countryside with hundreds of fields, each with hundreds of haystacks. Some haystacks have your needle in them, but most don't. None of the haystacks (test machines) in our field (here at Ancestry) have your needle--otherwise, it would already have been found and fixed. To slip a bug fix in between work the developer is supposed to do, he can't and won't spend any time searching haystacks that may not have your needle in it.

If you're serious about getting this needle found and fixed, get the developer's Ancestry name and contact him directly using Ancestry's anonymous message service. If you don't have an Ancestry account, you're stuck posting a message to the board (which it looks like he's ignoring).

Product management decides what the developers work on. Your other alternative is to try and get a product managers attention through the official Ancestry Blog. Convince them and they might assign a developer to look into the problems.

Friday, July 18, 2008

The Future of PAF (Take 2)

A statement on the future of PAF received widespread distribution recently when it was sent to the FamilySearch Family History Consultant E-mail list. The Ancestry Insider previously published the statement with added commentary. The statement has been fine tuned. Some of the changes correct misunderstandings in the Insider's previous commentary.

I have included underlined numbers in parentheses to indicate spots referenced in my commentary. My commentary is indented.

The Future of PAF

Personal Ancestral File (PAF) is free genealogy software offered by FamilySearch. Millions of people have used PAF to do family history work. Over the years, many other genealogy software programs have been introduced by commercial companies. Most of these programs can work with PAF and GEDCOM files, and they offer additional features that PAF does not have.

The last major update to PAF was PAF 5.2 in 2001. Since then, FamilySearch has been developing a web-based genealogy system that will allow people to create, search, manage, and share their family histories (1) online. This online system will (2) replace TempleReady. The first phase of the new system is being made available temple district by temple district to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day [Saints] and is temporarily accessed at new.familysearch.org. Once the system is complete, it will be available for free to members and the general public at www.familysearch.org. (3)

1 "Completely" was removed from this spot and
2 "Also" was removed from this spot. With the removal of these 2 words it no longer sounds like New FamilySearch (NFS) "completely" replaces PAF. These are not the only changes to this effect. Anywhere where the previous statement talked about the end of PAF have been changed. I've previously noted why FamilySearch doesn't want to communicate that PAF is completely dead.
3 This is a new sentence. It reflects that, as previously reported, FamilySearch is concerned that the public does not understand the temporary nature of the URL and term "New FamilySearch."

Currently, family history information cannot transfer automatically between PAF and the new FamilySearch system. You can create a GEDCOM file in PAF and export information into the new system, but you cannot export information from the new system into PAF. You need to manually enter any information you find in the new system that you want to add to PAF. To avoid duplication, it is not recommended that members export large GEDCOM files into the new system. (4) The system includes guidelines on how members should add information.

4 My previous commentary stated that the restriction against importing large GEDCOM files was temporary. It seems I was wrong.

In the future, you will be able to purchase software developed by other companies for use with PAF that will allow you to transfer information between the new FamilySearch system and PAF. As another option, you will be able to purchase and use genealogy software programs developed by others that allow automatic transfer of information between the programs and the new system. (5) (6)

5 Previously, the statement was biased towards Family Insight and Ancestral Quest. Now, the statement includes "another option" that is inclusive of Legacy or other PAF alternatives. Other changes in the statement were made for the same reason.
6 There used to be a paragraph here saying PAF users could use PAF "until" the new system was available. This was followed by a list of 4 alternatives. While 2 of the alternatives included continued use of PAF, the organization of the material was decidedly anti-PAF. All that is gone.

There are benefits for those who wish to use both the new online system and one of the commercial software programs. These programs will allow them to:

  • Work offline and then enable genealogical information to be automatically entered into the online FamilySearch system.
  • Maintain a working copy of their genealogy file on their own computer hard drive.
  • Use additional or advanced features that will not be offered in the online system.

PAF users who consider the purchase of another program should contact the manufacturer of the software to ensure that it will allow them to transfer and update their data between the software and the new FamilySearch online system. (7)

7 This paragraph is new.

The decision is much easier for those who are just beginning their family history and for those who do not have an electronic file of their family history—they will simply be able to build their family histories completely online using the new FamilySearch system. No other software will be needed. (8)

8 After carefully changing the rest of the statement in support of 3rd-party developers, it's interesting that the final sentence preserves the message that NFS can completely replace PAF.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Indexing Tips: The Palmer Method in New York City Schools

To the young person attempting to read cursive handwriting for the very first time, or after only a brief study in school, indexing cursive documents can be difficult. In this and other articles, I present styles of different time periods.

The Palmer Method was developed by Austin Norman Palmer around 1888 and was introduced in the 1894 book Palmer's Guide to Business Writing.

    Graded Movement Writing for Beginners

    In 1904 an associate superintendent for New York City saw Palmer's method demonstrated and in 1905 it was listed for use in New York City schools. In 1910 a New York City School superintendent, Joseph S. Taylor, and writing teacher, Margaret M. Hughes, authored a penmanship teaching manual titled Graded Movement Writing for Beginners. If I'm not mistaken, the method taught is Palmer's. However, while Palmer was liberal in his allowance of letter forms, Graded Movement specified the proper form to use for each letter. The choice bears strong similarities to Harcourt-Brace, but lacks the leading upstrokes of B, P and R. F and T have full upper-vertical strokes. The descender of p lacks the loop used in Harcourt and other descenders. Lowercase r uses the classic Palmer r.

    Script from Graded Movement Writing for Beginners, 1910.  
    Script from Graded Movement Writing for Beginners, 1910.

    Alphabet charts can be seen on these pages.

    Sources:

    Wednesday, July 16, 2008

    World Archives Project Beta Begins

    Last week Ancestry.com released the beta of its World Archives Project, its entry into the volunteer indexing arena. Those selected as beta testers received an e-mail invitation reading in part,

    We’re excited to let you know that you’ve been selected to participate in the World Archives Project private beta test.

    The FamilySearch Indexing application is written in Java so that it, theoretically, can be used with any computer system (PC, Mac, etc.) that supports Java. In contrast, the Ancestry application is written specifically for the Windows PC environment.

    The screen image, below, shows the World Archive Project Keying Tool which looks quite similar to the FamilySearch tool. Both display the image across the top half of the window and a table at the bottom in which to type the information from the image.

    I'll try and come back and give more general information at a later time. Stay tuned...

    Tuesday, July 15, 2008

    Indexing Tips: The Palmer Method

    To the young person attempting to read cursive handwriting for the very first time, or after only a brief study in school, indexing cursive documents can be difficult. In this and other articles, I present handwriting styles from different time periods.

    The Palmer Method was developed by Austin Norman Palmer around 1888 and was introduced in the 1894 book Palmer's Guide to Business Writing. The Palmer Method became the most popular handwriting system in the early 1900s. It continued its dominance until displaced by the movement to teach printing instead of cursive as the dominant handwriting style for students.

    Palmer's Guide to Business Writing

    Palmer's original 1894 work, Palmer's Guide to Business Writing, has been reproduced on the Library of Congress website. I was disappointed that the book doesn't contain a concise presentation of Palmer's recommended letter forms. As it turns out, Palmer was more concerned with method, speed and being able to write without tiring. I had to create my own chart of the letter forms shown in Palmer's book, cutting and pasting extensively. I can't speak to scale or alignment. Note that Palmer's book gives several forms for some letters.

    Alphabet chart for Palmer's Guide to Business Writing

    While there isn't a Palmer's Hand per se, Palmer sometimes expressed preference for a particular letter form. Of the various forms of uppercase S shown, Palmer says,

    Nowithstanding [sic] the opposition of some of our good brethren, these angular strokes continue to be popular and are used by many excellent business writers. To be sure, an angular is slower than an oval turn, and, from a standpoint of speed, these letters are not as desirable as those made up of ovals.

    Of the second form of lowercase r shown, Palmer states, "here is a form of r favored by many good business writers. It can be easily made one-half faster than the preceding form... If you like it, make it and stick to it." Of particular interest was the form Palmer called a "final t" which is the second lowercase t in the chart. It has a "point at top," but no vertical cross stroke.

    • pp. 16-18 - Among other info, "errors to be avoided" gives examples of poorly written letters.
    • pp. 18-29 - Upper & lowercase letters.
    • pp. 29-32 - Connected capital letter drills.
    • pp. 32-35 - Lesson 39 contains capitals A, B, C, D and E. Subsequent lessons start with successive capital letters.

    The last part of the book contains "a large variety of specimens of Business Writing by different penmen and business writers. These specimens represent the style of writing that is marketable in the commercial world." The writers don't necessarily stick to the "Palmer hand" in every regard.

    • p. 38 - Specimen by A. R. Merrill
    • p. 39 - Top specimen by A. N. Palmer, bottom by E. M. Huntinger
    • p. 40 - H. D. Goshert, Henry Jones
    • p. 41 - F. B. Moore capitals, G. E. Nettleton capitals, E. M. Huntinger specimen
    • p. 42 - E. H. Robins specimen, J. M. Peterson capitals
    • p. 43 - W. I. Staley specimen
    • p. 44 - August Fischer specimen
    • p. 45 - Alice G. Browne specimen, E. C. Mills specimen
    • p. 46 - Horton capitals, H. A. Price specimen
    • p. 47 - C. D. Brown specimen, C. W. Ransom specimen
    • p. 48 - A. R. Merrill specimen, E. F. Quintal specimen

    Sources:

    Monday, July 14, 2008

    Indexing Tips: 1900's American Handwriting

    To the young person attempting to read cursive handwriting for the very first time, or after only a brief study in school, indexing cursive documents can be difficult. In this and subsequent articles, I present handwriting styles from different eras.

    Twentieth Century Handwriting Samples

    First, here are several popular handwriting styles of the twentieth century. Because these are printer fonts, they don't show if some letters have multiple, acceptable forms.

    • The Palmer Method was developed by Austin Norman Palmer around 1888 and was introduced in the 1894 book Palmer's Guide to Business Writing. The Palmer Method became the most popular handwriting system in the early 1900s. More than a prescribed set of glyphs, the method described the proper body, shoulder and hand movements as well as the proper teaching method. At the time of his death in 1927, over 25 million Americans had learned the Palmer Method of penmanship.

      Classic Palmer (shown below) is slanted with large and small ornamental loops. New Palmer has slight variations such as a large loop around the vertical stroke on the B. Q looks like a 2. The F is one looping stroke. (New Palmer F matches the T.) T has a full vertical stroke across the top. Unlike M, N, U and V, W is pointy. Classic Palmer allows the r illustrated as well as the r used by most cursive scripts today.
      CurPalmerVint
      Classic Palmer script illustration courtesy Educational Fontware, Inc.
    • Zaner-Bloser script was designed by Charles Paxton Zaner (1864-1918) and was initially taught at the Zanerian Business College. Zaner-Bloser accounts for about 40% of handwriting texts in America today. Traditional Zaner-Bloser (shown below) is slanted with little ornamental loops on many uppercase characters like C, E, H and K. Q looks like a 2. F and T have full, vertical top strokes. W is pointy. (Simplified Zaner-Bloser has few loops. Q looks like a printed Q. W is rounded like M, N, U and V.)
      CurZanerBloserTrad
      Traditional Zaner-Bloser script illustration courtesy Educational Fontware, Inc.
      Please excuse the poor connectors between some letters such as lmn uv and others. 
    • D'Nealian script was introduced in 1976 and already accounts for 40% of textbook sales. It is named after its inventor, Donald Neal Thurber and uses a slanted form with few ornamental loops. Q looks like a 2, F and T have a full horizontal top stroke and M, N, U, V and W are rounded rather than pointed. While some cursive scripts allow breaks between certain letters, D'Nealian is fully linked.
      CurDNealian
      D'Nealian Script illustration courtesy Educational Fontware, Inc.
    • Harcourt-Brace is slanted and curvy but has few ornamental loops. Q looks like a 2, the vertical top strokes of F and T extend only to the left and W is rounded rather than pointed.
      CurHarcourtBrace
      Harcourt-Brace Script illustration courtesy Educational Fontware, Inc.
      Please excuse my poor connectors between some letters such as lmn and yz.

    Sources:

    Thursday, July 10, 2008

    Kendall Hulet Interview, Part 2

    Last Monday I got to speak frankly about Ancestry's New Search with Kendall Hulet, director of product management. (Kendall and I go way back. Someday I'll have to tell you about the argument we had about trees and—it's still painful to think about—how I turned out to be wrong. Now that I think about, I wasn't wrong so much as Kendall was right. But I digress...)

    We sat down together to hash over my concerns with New Search. I wrote about a couple of the worst problems earlier this week. See Inside the problems of Ancestry's New Search. As of Wednesday night, the promised fix for the new home page Quick Links hasn't been released. I assume this will be released as soon as possible.

    Here's my entire laundry list of problems with New Search. Following the list, I'll tell you what Hulet had to say about them.

    1. New Search returns too many false positives, as was discussed in my last article.
    2. New Search requires more clicks than Old Search.
    3. New Search lacks the database specific search forms that Old Search has.
    4. Old Search has bugs.
    5. New Search has bugs.

    New Search requires more clicks

    Hulet and I discussed this at length and I provided a variety of examples contributing to the rise in the number of clicks needed to perform everyday tasks. Hulet explained that they are aware of most, if not all, of these issues and are exploring different ways of addressing them. But, he said, fixing known bugs is a higher priority.

    I think New Search presupposes use of trees and ranked searching. So users who depend almost exclusively on exact searching are running into bugs and design flaws that Ancestry didn't find or didn't think about. New Search is proving to be painful and extremely less productive for exact searchers.

    While trees and ranked searching are very useful and important new tools for searching, I'm shocked and surprised that many long-time users are not using them. I consider myself a power user's power user. I think there are very few people on the planet who understand and use the search system for real-life searching more than I do. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that could generate successful searches faster and more efficiently than I can. And I consider tree-based searching and ranked searching to be essential tools for effective searches in some situations.

    Consequently, I'm surprised that so many people are not using these tools alongside the primary and essential tool of exact searching. I wonder if Ancestry knows this? It's a real failure on Ancestry's part to not communicate and teach users how to utilize these tools.

    I guess I should try and show how these tools can be effectively used. If I forget to address this in future articles, keep reminding me to teach you when and how to use tree-based searches, ranked searches and exact searches to add value to your Ancestry experience.

    My wife says it's time for bed. (I'm writing this last night and scheduling it for morning publication.) So what follows is the remainder of my outline, with some reminders of points to cover. I'll cover these topics in a future post.

    New Search lacks database specific search forms

    Old Search has bugs

    Include scary big numbers and Results by Category here.

    New Search has bugs

    I'm aware that nearly simultaneously with the release of New Search, at least one database got broken.

    Wednesday, July 9, 2008

    NFS Rollout Update: Eureka! They've Got It!

    New FamilySearch Rollout Map for 8-Jul-2008

    The New FamilySearch (NFS) rollout has resumed after a two-week hiatus, probably caused by the NFS outage at the end of June followed by the U.S. Independence Day holiday, last week. And it resumed with gusto. For the first time ever, 5 districts were activated on a single day.

    Eureka! With the release of Newport Beach and Redlands, all 7 California temple districts are now on NFS. The only state with more temple districts than California is Utah, where no districts are using NFS. Utah is thought to be last on the rollout schedule. Redlands was beginning to give up hope, wondering if they were on hold like Las Vegas. The two were the last of the large group notified 8 Nov 2007. Now there is one.

    Caracas Venezuela and Santiago Chile went active Tuesday. Both are in South American countries with single temples. Brazil is the only multi-temple country in South America. South America only has 5 temples to go.

    Johannesburg South Africa was the second of three African temples to go live. If Nigeria goes soon enough, Africa could be the second continent to be completed, following Australia.

    But Africa may not be #2 if the rumors are true concerning Europe. Some people have heard that the entire Europe Area will be activated at the same time. I wouldn't be too certain about that. As you can see from the blinking dots across Northern Europe, dates for several districts were just announced and they aren't all on the same day. Here's what we know about Europe:

    • Helsinki Finland - ei sana (no word, yet)
    • Frankfurt and Freiberg Germany - nein wort (I haven't heard a peep)
    • London England - 16-September-2008
    • Preston England - about 16-September-2008
    • Stockholm Sweden - about 5-August-2008
    • Copenhagen Denmark - about 29-July-2008
    • The Hague - 5-August-2008

    Mexico has 4 to go, the Caribbean has but 1. Pretty soon we'll be down to temple districts with non-Roman alphabets and IOUS problems.

    See the latest updates at Temple Districts Using New FamilySearch. As always, keep me informed and stay tuned...

    Papeete Tahiti Apia Samoa Nuku alofa Tonga Suva Fiji Johannesburg South Africa Aba Nigeria Accra Ghana Anchorage Alaska Edmonton Alberta Cardston Alberta Kona Hawaii Manila Philippines Hong Kong China Taipei Taiwan Seoul Korea Fukuoka Japan Tokyo Japan Cebu Philippines Hamilton New Zealand Melbourne Australia Adelaide Australia Perth Australia Brisbane Australia Sydney Australia Laie Hawaii Santiago Chile Montevideo Uruguay Buenos Aires Argentina Asunción Paraguay Porto Alegre Brazil Curitiba Brazil Campinas Brazil São Paulo Brazil Recife Brazil Cochabamba Bolivia Lima Peru Guayaquil Ecuador Bogotá Colombia Caracas Venezuela Manaus Brazil Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Guatemala City Guatemala San Jose Costa Rica Panama City Panama Quetzaltenango Guatemala San Salvador El Salvador Tegucigalpa Honduras Merida México Villahermosa México Tuxtla Gutlerrez México Oaxaca México Veracruz México México City México Guadalajara México Tampico México Monterrey México Hermosillo Sonora México Colonia Juárez Chihuahua México Ciudad Juárez México Madrid Spain Bern Switzerland The Hague Netherlands Preston England London England Frankfurt Germany Freiberg Germany Kiev Ukraine Copenhagen Denmark Stockholm Sweden Helsinki Finland Vancouver British Columbia Regina Saskatchewan Halifax Nova Scotia Montreal Quebec Toronto Ontario Palmyra New York Boston Massachusetts Manhattan New York Washington D.C. Louisville Kentucky Memphis Tennessee Nashville Tennessee Raleigh North Carolina Columbia South Carolina Atlanta Georgia Birmingham Alabama Orlando Florida Detroit Michigan Kirtland Columbus Ohio Chicago Illinois Nauvoo Illinois St. Louis Missouri Winter Quarters Nebraska St. Paul Minnesota Bismarck North Dakota Oklahoma City Oklahoma Lubbock Texas Dallas Texas Houston Texas San Antonio Texas Baton Rouge Louisiana Denver Colorado Billings Montana Boise Idaho Twin Falls Idaho Rexburg Idaho Idaho Falls Idaho Albuquerque New Mexico Snowflake Arizona Gila Valley Arizona Gilbert Arizona Phoenix Arizona Mesa Arizona Spokane Washington Columbia River Washington Seattle Washington Portland Oregon Medford Oregon Reno Nevada Las Vegas Nevada Fresno California Sacramento California Oakland Californai Redlands Californai Los Angeles California Newport Beach Californai San Diego California St. George Utah Monticello Utah Vernal Utah Logan Utah Manti Utah Provo Utah Mount Timpanogos Utah Draper Utah Salt Lake Bountiful Utah Ogden Utah Jordan River Utah Oquirrh Mountain Utah

    Tuesday, July 8, 2008

    Inside the problems of Ancestry's New Search

    Upon hearing a rumor that Ancestry.com intended to turn off its Old Search sooner than later, I posted an article pinging you, my readers, to see if you thought New Search was ready. Comments ran 4 against and 1 for. I also posted an online poll asking, "Is Ancestry's New Search ready to replace Old Search?" Because online polls don't use random sampling, the results are unsound. But when 18 of 19 voters say that New Search isn't ready to replace Old Search, you'd think Ancestry would sit up and take notice.

    And notice they did. After that post, Ancestry's PR machine went into action. Kendall Hulet, Ancestry's head of product management, did an interview for DearMYRTLE's Family History Hour 1 July 2008. Reaction from listeners looks very positive. I feel like Mary Poppins in the final scenes of her stay with the Banks family. Mr. Banks is finally connecting with his family. The wind is changing. It must be time for me to move on. What's that you say? A tear? Sigh....

    Then, to my surprise Ancestry sent the Ancestry Insider an invitation for an interview with Hulet. The Ancestry Insider wrote back and gladly accepted. I had to laugh, though. After carefully doing our dance of independence through the Ancestry Insider's e-mail address, PR booked the meeting like normal through Outlook and Exchange. I will miss all the great people in our PR department. Mike Ward is not only a good friend, he's a 5th cousin! But I digress...

    Monday I brought my laundry list of New Search complaints culled from my own experience as well as what you've shared, directly and elsewhere on the net. Hulet was very open and freely shared some problems and solutions of Ancestry's New Search.

    New Home Page Forces New Search

    When Ancestry's new home page (for logged-in users) was released 2-July-2008, complaints started popping up online about New Search! Since the home page and the search are independent, I was confused.

    Hulet said that some of the links on new home page inadvertently switch users' search preference to New Search. While the user can manually switch back, using the links on the home page will again force the user to New Search. Hulet characterized the issue as of such high priority that a fix was being pushed forward as quickly as possible. Hulet expects it will happen today.

    There were two sets of links that could have been incorporated into the new home page. The legacy set would respond to the users' search preference and should have been used on the new home page. The new set would override the users' search preference. Some of these links were inadvertently used.

    I poked around a bit and I think these are the links of which Hulet spoke. clicking a link in the first column will preserve your search setting. Clicking a link in the second will switch you to new search.

    Legacy Links New Search Links
    Birth, Marriage & Death Records Birth, Marriage & Death Records
    U.S. Immigration Collection U.S. Immigration Collection

     

    Hulet warned that the fix has the side effect of undoing some users custom links, but deemed the fix important enough to justify this side-effect.

    More False-Positives

    Many people, including myself, have noticed that New Search's exact searches return a lot of false-positives, which is to say, matches that aren't matches. Performing the same search on old and new gives more results with new. That would be good, except the additional matches are all non-matches. Hulet admitted this is a problem. Old search looks for "proximity" among the search terms. In other words, the terms must appear close to one another on the page. New search does not, so it returns more and worse results. Hulet all but promised that a fix would be released for this problem some time this week so that new search also looks at proximity.

    Hulet also mentioned they are close to releasing a bug fix for another issue that produces bad results. If one searches for a name using a wildcard, like "Joh* Smith," the wildcard causes the name parser to throw a gasket trying to divide the given name and the surname. The fix is in the pipeline and will likely roll live this week or next. In the interim, to perform a wildcard search on a name, use the Advanced search form which has separate first and last name fields. To switch between normal and advanced, click on Advanced at the top-right corner of the search field.

    Hulet is hopeful that these corrections will fix all the instances where new search returns more false-positives than old search, but acknowledged there's no guarantee. These two bugs are so predominant, Ancestry won't be able to tell if any further, minor bugs exist until they take care of these two.

    I'll have more of the issues I discussed with Kendall Hulet in an upcoming article. Stay tuned...

    Sunday, July 6, 2008

    Serendipity in Genealogy: Hunting Hannah

    It's coincidence, hunch, synchronicity, fortuitous luck, guidance, paranormal, spiritual, karma, ESP, visitation, life-after-death, fate, divinity, genetic memory, providence, intuition, Deity, inspiration, psychic, revelation, subconscious reasoning, numeracy, vision, sixth sense, collective subconscious, dream, reincarnation, educated guess, inner voice, out-of-body journey, chance, non-mechanical reality, portent, omen or "the sheer cussed ... wonder of things." (Jones, Psychic Roots, p. 81.)

    We call it Serendipity in Genealogy.

    Hunting Hannah

    Eileen G. Pelletier was taking photos of all her ancestors' graves. While she was having success with most, one 2nd great grandmother continued to evade her. Hannah was a Civil War widow. Her husband had most likely been buried in a common grave in North Carolina. But where was she?

    In the 1880 census Pelletier found that after the War Hannah had moved to Lewiston, Maine. Through a relative she discovered that Hannah lived there until her death.

    I did not check [for her grave] there as I presumed she was taken back to where she had lived before her husband had enlisted in the army.

    Pelletier went and searched the town where Hannah and her husband had lived. They found the graves of many of his relatives, parents included, but no Hannah.

    Could Hannah have been buried in Lewiston, away from all her family? Pelletier traveled there to find out. While the cemetery in Lewiston was beautiful, it was large and there were no written records of the older graves. Pelletier searched the entire cemetery but there was no Hannah.

    On the chance that she had missed Hannah's grave, Pelletier returned a second time. She searched. But still there was no Hannah.

    On the third visit as we were traveling along I spied another family name, which was not hers, but I was just curious. My husband stopped the car. I got out and proceeded to walk to this other plot when I glanced to my left and there was Hannah's grave.

    Hannah's marker included her husband's name on the same stone, even though she couldn't be buried with him. Pelletier found, however, what kept Hannah in the area. Four of her daughters were also buried there.

    As for the stone with the family name that precipitated this serendipitous find? As you've already guessed, it was not a relative.

     

    Adapted from Eileen G. Pelletier, "Hunting Hannah in a Maine Cemetery," previously published in RootsWeb Review: 18 October 2006, Vol. 9, No. 42.

    Friday, July 4, 2008

    Blogging at FamilySearch

    Happy Independence Day, everyone!

    There's so much I want to explain about my change in employment and there's so little time to write, at least for today I'll start by answering a question asked in response to Thursday's announcement.

    Dean wrote,

    From what you've been able to sense so far, do you anticipate any differences in FamilySearch's corporate attitude towards employee blogs vs. the one you experienced at Ancestry?

    Dear Dean,

    Thanks for reading my blog and thanks for your comment. Best wishes on your new blog!

    If you've not read my posts on the topic of employee bloggers, the series is called Don't Miss the Train. In short, employee bloggers should never violate non-disclosure agreements or any other contractual terms they have agreed to. And they should never speak evil of their employer or fellow employees. These are principals that are just as sound at FamilySearch as at Ancestry.

    Church magazine coverstory encourages Church member participation onlineIf I find any difference in attitude, I expect to find greater encouragement to blog at FamilySearch than at Ancestry. Just this month, blogging was encouraged by FamilySearch's sponsor, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Church). The cover story of the July 2008 issue of the Ensign, a Church published magazine, is Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet. This article is written by Elder M. Russell Ballard, one of the Church's Twelve Apostles.

    Ballard states that,

    We all have interesting stories that have influenced our identity. Sharing those stories is a nonthreatening way to talk to others [about the Church]. Telling those stories can help demystify the Church. You could help overcome misperceptions through your own sphere of influence, which ought to include the Internet.

    My understanding is that FamilySearch takes very seriously any counsel given by the Church's leadership, so the timing of this article couldn't be better for employee bloggers at FamilySearch.

    Since my target audience is users of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org, I assume my audience comes to me for information about these websites, not about religion. I hope members of all churches and any religious belief are comfortable reading my blog. If not, please let me know (privately, preferably).

    I assume my audience appreciates "insider" information that "demystifies" the actions of Ancestry and FamilySearch. I have experience as an executive at a former company and I've spent 5+ years inside The Generations Network. What appears absolutely lunatic from the outside (such as the Internet Biographical Collection), has some pretty logical and benign explanations from the inside.

    Likewise, I am a long-time Church "insider" (member) and will be able to report on the FamilySearch organization from the inside out. I try to keep in mind that some FamilySearch actions are better understood if I share brief, necessary insider information about the Church.

    There have been more questions, and more answers are coming. Stay tuned...

    What Do You Think?

    How am I doing? This very posting required some information about the Church to explain why employee blogging at FamilySearch might be encouraged more than at Ancestry.com. Leave me a comment and tell me what you think. Did I go too far? I was uncertain if I included enough information for someone unfamiliar with the Church to understand that Mr. Ballard's statement would have a large bearing on policy at FamilySearch. Was that apparent?

    Thursday, July 3, 2008

    Don't Tell Anyone But...

    The editorial policy of this blog is to report on, defend and constructively criticize two major genealogical websites, Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org, and associated topics. The author attempts to fairly and evenly support both organizations, but believing readers have a right to know that a possible conflict of interest exists, he previously disclosed his employment by Ancestry.com.

    Please be informed that the author's employment by Ancestry.com is coming to a close on 11-July-2008 and employment with FamilySearch.org will begin on 28-July-2008. Before and after this transition the editorial policy of this blog remains unchanged. The blog title, The Ancestry Insider, will also remain unchanged as it has become more closely associated with the author than with any other entity. The author remains an insider among those searching their ancestry and will take steps to assure that no confusion results.

    NOTICE: The Ancestry Insider is independent of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. The opinions expressed herein are his own. Trademarks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The Ancestry Insider is solely responsible for any silly, comical or satirical trademark parodies presented as such herein.