Inside Scoop On Ancestry Acquisition

If life continues to be so busy, this is going to be a weekly column rather than a weekday column. Holy Cow! Fortunately, the world has no shortage of excellent genealogy blogs.

Can I say that I'm thinking in a prior life I was Randy Seaver? I think we share engineering backgrounds that lead our brains down the same paths. Or maybe he has my office bugged. When I come up with a subject I wish to cover, at least half the time he covers it in his Genea-Musings blog before I can get to it. Which isn't all bad, given the limitations on my time. As long as I don't mind him getting all the glory, this could be a wonderful partnership. I'll continue to come up with great topic ideas and he can continue doing a great job writing them up.

I don't mean to start a list here, but you good genealogy bloggers, you know who you are. <smile> I try and keep my personal reading down to... hang on let me count... 40 blogs! Holy Cow! No wonder I don't have time to write!

Bloglines Feed Reader

And may I say again how impressed I am with Bloglines. During this acquisition week there's no way I could have kept up without it. You see, I broke down last Saturday and got a cell phone with Wi-Fi and Windows Mobile. (If anyone accuses me of putting my old phone through the wash, I'll deny any involvement. I'm totally, ah... clean. ) Now I can read blogs from anywhere in the house (when it's working. I refuse to pay for a Data Subscription. I have Wi-Fi at work and at home. You'd think the phone would be happy. But the stupid phone and/or stupid Windows Mobile doesn't like being operated without a data subscription. Grrrr! Has nobody out there done this before?!? But I digress...)

I was delighted to find that on my mobile phone Bloglines has special handling making it remarkably usable even in a 1.75 " by 1.75 " browser window. Feeds can be marked to display complete posts or summaries and can be completely excluded from the mobile reader. Clicking through to original blog posts, Bloglines invokes skweezer.net technology so even the original blogs are reformatted for the tiny screen.

The Acquisition

Using all this newfangled technology, I've been able to keep up with the hundreds of postings about the sell of Ancestry.com's parent company, the Generations Network (TNG). There have been some inaccuracies out there and I'd like to address them.

Inaccuracy: "Morale at the company is low"

We're in a great job market and if this were true, there would be higher levels of turnover. If anything, the recent layoff hit some groups harder than others because they weren't experiencing any turnover. I suppose you can find the usual small number of workers that are greatly dissatisfied and the expected great number of workers with small dissatisfactions.

And we also have those that remember that when the company was smaller it was more fun. I've seen that before, also, and consider it normal. Some people enjoy the less-restrictive, higher-productivity and greater-interactivity of smaller companies. But it says something that they've stayed with the company this long.

It's true that all of us have hated the layoffs. You'd have to be inhuman not to. I was an executive of a large technology company and had to affect several layoffs. I used to return after hours and cry at the desks of my former employees. Knowing what I did was the best thing for the company and its owners was little solace to me because I knew it would be of no solace to the newly unemployed families.

Inaccuracy: "A few months ago the CFO was laid off"

There are several places where a fact-checker could see if this were true before publishing it. The TGN Management Team page of the company website shows David H. Rinn is the CFO. The Press Release Archives for 2004 shows he's held that position for over three years.

Inaccuracy: "Conditions at the company are bad"

In all fairness, the author goes on to specify that it is the condition of affiliate relations that are bad. Since the author is professionally involved in affiliate marketing, she may be right on this point. I just wanted to make it clear that conditions "at" or inside the company are just fine, thank you.

TGN Blocking Newspaper Girl?

Inaccuracy: "Employees at Ancestry.com read my blog"

I made that last one up. What Newspapergrl, Janet Meiners, actually said was, "Ancestry.com employees read my blog." And this is true. Meiners used to work at Ancestry, so it's only natural. But I found something weird the last time I tried to read her blog while at Ancestry. I could read the post just fine in Bloglines, but when I attempted to click through to her website, I got a browser error stating the name did not exist. Two fellow workers verified the same result at that time and a week later.

Is TGN blocking employee access to Meiners website? Is Meiners website blocking readers with TGN's IP address? Could this be inadvertent on one of the parties parts? She looks like a nice girl. She and I have a 3rd-degree LinkedIn relationship through 50 of my contacts. She posted a link to my website, so she must be a good person.

That's It For Tonight

Well, it's late, so that's it for tonight. In parting, let me make it clear that this acquisition is simply one owner buying out other owners as a financial investment. Spectrum is not an expert in genealogy or Internet social networking. They are experts in investing. They must have faith in our business model. They've gotta' believe in our management team. As experts in finding companies whose value will grow at a rate faster than the market, the last thing they want to do is introduce risk, upsetting the apple cart in any substantial way.

TGN and Ancestry.com Sold

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

The Generations Network, Parent Company of Ancestry.com, to be Acquired by Spectrum Equity Investors

 

Investment Will Support and Accelerate Company’s Strategic Direction and Growth Plan

 

PROVO, UTAH – October 17, 2007 – The Generations Network, Inc., today announced that Spectrum Equity Investors will lead an investment of $300 million to purchase a majority interest in the company. Spectrum, a private equity firm based in Menlo Park and Boston, has been a shareholder in The Generations Network since 2003. Following the transaction, Vic Parker and Ben Spero from Spectrum will serve on the company’s new board of directors, along with Tim Sullivan, President and CEO of The Generations Network. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed.  The acquisition is subject to customary regulatory and closing conditions and is expected to close in 2007.

 

The Generations Network’s portfolio of sites and products includes Ancestry.com and seven international Ancestry sites, myfamily.com, Rootsweb.com, Genealogy.com, Family Tree Maker® and Ancestry Magazine. The company’s current management team will continue to lead the company.

 

“As an investor in The Generations Network for the past four years, we have watched the company revolutionize the family history category by leveraging the power of the Internet to make it more accessible and easy for anyone,” said Vic Parker, Managing Partner, Spectrum Equity Investors. “Ancestry.com and myfamily.com are clear category leaders in the growing and rapidly evolving family history and family networking markets. We are excited to partner with The Generations Network management team to continue growing this truly unique company that has the power to impact users at a very personal and emotional level.”

 

The Generations Network properties have more than 900,000 paying subscribers and receive 8.2 million worldwide unique visitors per month (© comScore Media Metrix, August 2007). In the last 18 months, the company has solidified its position as one of the largest and most profitable subscription businesses online with success in several areas:

 

• Ancestry.com is the world’s leading online family history resource, with more than 5 billion names from historical records, unmatched and proprietary search technologies and an engaged and passionate community of more than 2.5 million active members.

 

• A redesigned Ancestry.com experience has transformed an online research tool into a platform for aggregating the world’s family history memories. Since late July 2006, more than 3.8 million family trees have been created on Ancestry.com, over 330 million names added to Ancestry Family Trees^TM, and more than 3.5 million individual photos, stories, or scanned documents have been uploaded by members.

 

• Ancestry.com now boasts the only completely indexed online U.S. Federal Census Collection (1790-1930), the most comprehensive online compilation of U.S. ship passenger lists (1820-1960), the largest online collection of African American historical documents and the most comprehensive online collection of U.S. military records.

 

• Beyond the United States, the Ancestry global network now includes local country sites for the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, France and Sweden.

 

• The recent launch of DNA.ancestry.com^TM now extends the Ancestry service into the rapidly growing field of genetic genealogy.

 

• AncestryPress^TM, a digital publishing platform integrated into Ancestry.com, now gives every family the ability to create completely unique, professionally printed family history books.

 

• Family Tree Maker® 2008, the No. 1-selling family history software package, is now available online and in major retail stores throughout North America and Europe.

 

• The redesigned myfamily.com site now has new features, providing families everywhere a safe, private, and free family home on the Web.

 

“Spectrum Equity has been an incredibly supportive and strategic-minded investor in our company for several years, so I am thrilled to have them acquire this majority interest in The Generations Network,” said Tim Sullivan, company President and CEO. “2007 has been the company’s most successful and profitable year to date, and 2008 looks even more promising as we grow our core businesses further, expand our global presence, and innovate with new products and services that help us realize our mission to connect families across distance and time. I appreciate Spectrum’s vote of confidence in our direction and vision, and I am excited to work even more closely with Vic Parker and Ben Spero to continue to transform this amazing and unique business into a truly great company.”

 

Lehman Brothers acted as financial advisor to The Generations Network, Inc. in the transaction.

 

About The Generations Network, Inc.

The Generations Network, Inc., founded in 1983, is the leading online network connecting families across distance and time. The Generations Network, Inc. provides people the content, community, and technology to empower them to find the people most important to them -- and discover and share their unique family stories. The Generations Network operates eight Ancestry websites, including www.ancestry.com (United States), www.ancestry.co.uk (United Kingdom), www.ancestry.ca (Canada), www.ancestry.com.au (Australia), www.ancestry.de (Germany), www.ancestry.it (Italy), www.ancestry.fr (France), and www.ancestry.se (Sweden) as well as www.myfamily.com, www.genealogy.com, and www.rootsweb.com. The company also publishes Family Tree Maker®, the No. 1-selling family history software, Ancestry Magazine and more than 50 book titles. For more information, visit www.thegenerationsnetwork.com.

 

About Spectrum Equity Investors

Spectrum Equity Investors is a private equity firm focused on investing in profitable, growing services businesses. Founded in 1994 with offices in Menlo Park and Boston, Spectrum manages over $4 billion in capital across five funds. The firm’s investment team has deep experience in information services and online media, including investments in Demand Media, Interbank FX, iPay Technologies, NetQuote, Mortgagebot, RiskMetrics Group, Seisint (acquired by Reed Elsevier PLC.) and WorldCheck.  For more information, visit www.spectrumequity.com.

 

Media Contacts

Julia Burgon

Coltrin & Associates for Ancestry.com

212-221-1616 ext. 124

julia_burgon@coltrin.com

 

Tola St. Matthew-Daniel

Coltrin & Associates for Ancestry.com

212-221-1616 ext. 101

tola@coltrin.com

 

 

Employees: Don't Get Hit by the Train — Part 4

Don't Miss the Train.
© Josef F. Stuefer

This is the last in a four part series examining the use of blogs to open communications between consumers and genealogy companies. In part one we introduced the Cluetrain Manifesto. In part two we presented the Manifesto's key theses. In part three we examined the official blogs of Ancestry and FamilySearch. Today we talk about employee bloggers and the problems they face. I'll present the short list of known employee bloggers at Ancestry and FamilySearch and their parent companies.

Blogging's Unintended Consequences

Wikipedia notes that bloggers have faced numerous unforeseen consequences including defamation and liability lawsuits, criminal prosecution, imprisonment (in Singapore) and deportation (from the Sudan). One innocent blogger became the target of threats so vicious she was afraid for her life.

Don't Get "Dooced"

There's an additional concern for those who blog about their work.

Heather B. Armstrong is a 1997 graduate of Brigham Young University who rose to national prominence when she was fired from her job because of her blog, Dooce. Armstrong says,

I was fired from my job for this website because I had written stories that included people in my workplace. My advice to you is BE YE NOT SO STUPID. Never write about work on the internet unless your boss knows and sanctions the fact that YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT WORK ON THE INTERNET.

Sympathetic bloggers now use the term "dooced" to refer to losing one's job because of one's blog. Horror stories of dooced bloggers are strewn across the Internet. (See articles at NYT, BBC News, Telegraph, NPR, Bangalore Times, SF Chronicle.)

I Love, er... Loved My Job

My job is a dream come true. I love genealogy, computers and the Internet. I love Ancestry and company. I love working there. I love all the fantastic people I work with. I think our executive management team is top notch.

But employees are finding that loving one's job and employer will not save them when they inadvertently cross the unseen line that separates acceptable and unacceptable blogging.

Christine Axsmith got axed from the CIA.

I love the CIA. I love the mission. I love the people. It's such a great place to work.

Her mistake? On a blog inside the CIA only accessible by readers with top secret clearance she followed up a well-received post on the poor food in the cafeteria with one reviewing the Geneva Convention's rules about torture.(Source)

The Evil Empire

Robert Scoble is the prominent blogger credited with "single-handedly (at first) giving the EVIL EMPIRE (Microsoft, who else?) a 'Human Face' thanks to his Blog." The Economist described Scoble similarly:

Impressively, he has also succeeded where small armies of more conventional public-relations types have been failing abjectly for years: he has made Microsoft, with its history of monopolistic bullying, appear marginally but noticeably less evil to the outside world.... Bosses and PR people at other companies are taking note.

I suppose Ancestry's reputation is what drove me to blog (with the encouragement of my former VP). While management has purged the company of the repugnant practices that produced their previous reputation, their past public persona persists.

How to Not Get Dooced

In Scoble's book, Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers (coauthored with Shel Israel), he dedicates an entire chapter to the topic of blogging without getting dooced. He should know. While a blogger for Microsoft, he sometimes criticized Microsoft's problem areas—even praising its competitors' strengths—without getting fired. Here's my take on the seven danger areas Scoble advises employee bloggers avoid:

1. Leaking financial or other confidential information.
2. Breaking news in advance (see #1) or otherwise generating unexpected work for the PR team.
3. Not matching up with the PR image. Companies spend a lot of time and money to build a particular brand image.
4. Disrupting the workplace by angering your co-workers or bosses.
5. Exposing dirty laundry, or in any way hurting people’s careers (See #4 again).
6. Increasing legal liabilities. Companies generally don’t like getting sued.
7. Damaging a company’s relationships with partners, competitors or other entities that affect its standing.

When violation of these issues take employers or employees by surprise, trouble results. Employers must recognize that effective blogging policies and fair disciplinary actions must address all the danger areas. Employees must recognize that each company and each area within a company will have different blogging tolerance levels, which can vary over time. Scoble and Israel advise,

Good bloggers have to be good employees, if companies are going to not only tolerate, but encourage blogging.

Companies Benefit

Scoble goes on to explain the benefits that employers derive from employee bloggers.

On the part of company decision-makers, they need to keep in mind that the sentiment of the blogosphere is decidedly opposed to the broadcast marketing and corpspeak that dominates other communication channels. Employee cheerleading [works and] only works credibly when employers tolerate their [occasional] criticism.

The best course for employers is to give employees guidelines under which they will have the freedom and incentive to become world class bloggers. Make clear that you trust your employees to blog smart. Define the taboos in your company.

Then step back and let them say what they want. Yes, from time-to-time, some will be critical of company products or policies—and they’ll do it right out there in the open where your customers, competitors and the media can see it. And all of those people will see the openness and tolerance of your company culture. ... That is good for [your company image].

And your customers, competitors and the media will more readily believe positive statements about your company coming from them than coming from you.

FamilySearch Employee Bloggers

Here are the few blogs of FamilySearch and TGN employees that I know of. Perhaps there are others. I'll start with FamilySearch and parent company, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Church).

• Dan Lawyer. Taking Genealogy to the Common Person. March 2006. Product manager at FamilySearch Labs. Infrequent posts. Blogs about work. http://eatslikeahuman.blogspot.com/
• Larry Richman. ldsWebguy. July 2006. The Church Internet Coordination Group Director. Frequent postings. Blogs about work. Not genealogy-centric. http://www.ldswebguy.com/
• Jason Lynes, et. al. NorthTemple. August 2006. A group of designers from the Church. Frequent posts. Blogs about work. Not genealogy-centric. Scroll to see postings. http://www.northtemple.com/

The Generations Network Employee Bloggers

Here are some blogs from employees of Ancestry.com and parent company, The Generations Network (TGN).

• Anthony Colfelt. The Vanity Experiment. Sept. 2003. MyFamily.com creative director. Frequent posts. Rarely about work. http://www.colfelt.com/thevanityexperiment/
• Sean Malone. seanomatopoeia. Sept. 2006. MyFamily.com product management director. Infrequent posts. Not about work. http://blog.seanmalone.com
• Hector. SystemWidgets. Sept. 2006. TGN employee. Infrequent postings. Plans to blog about work. http://www.systemwidgets.com
• Anthony Incisor. The Ancestry Insider. April 2007. Frequent posts. About work. http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com

Wrap Up

"Fall is Coming" from Sean Malone's blog.

I have learned a lot researching this series. This last article, in particular, has put the fear in me.

Have I learned enough that I can provide useful and interesting information to you, my readers, while showing my employer that my blog benefits the company also?

Stay tuned...

Don't Miss the Train - Part 3

Don't Miss the Train.
© Josef F. Stuefer

This is the third in a four part series examining the use of blogs to open communications between consumers and genealogy companies. In part one we introduced the Cluetrain Manifesto. In part two we presented some of the Manifesto's theses. Today we examine the official blogs of Ancestry and FamilySearch. In the fourth and final installment, we'll talk about employee bloggers.

100,000 of My Closest Friends

Have you heard the Steve Martin bit where he personally thanks each and every audience member for coming to his show? He launches into a long, long series of staccato "thay'que, thay'que, thay'que, thay'que, thay'que, thay'que, thay'que—gasp for breath—thay'que, thay'que, thay'que, ..." Similarly, a friend at Ancestry.com told me

I remember well my first project which "rolled live" to Ancestry.com. One moment the page wasn't there and in the blink of an eye the next person saw it. And the next. And the next. In just moments thousands of people had viewed the page and several acted on the offer.

It was amazing! I can't even tell you what it felt like.

The magnitude of traffic on a major website like Ancestry.com is truly mind-boggling. Imagine inviting 100,000 of your closest friends to a party. Each party goer attends with the implicit belief that he or she will receive some personal attention from the host. I can imagine decision makers at high-traffic website companies have the same intrepidation around setting such an expectation among website users.

TGN Dips a Toe

Logo from 24/7 Family History Circle

The first group from The Generations Network (TGN) into the blogging waters was Ancestry Publishing. Their 24/7 Family History Circle blog debuted way back on the last day of March 2006. It's a great genealogical newsletter regularly carrying articles from some of today's top genealogical writers (except for the Insider. What's up with that?). But for those of us wanting a two-way, natural conversation, March went out like a lamb that year. You can find 24/7 Family History Circle at http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle.

The RootsWeb Newsroom tested the waters next. They came online in September of 2006. They pushed the boundary of natural-voiced conversation a little further than the publishing group. Visit the RootsWeb Newsroom at http://bigfile.rootsweb.com/newsroom.

 

The MyFamily.com Blog links to a
flickr pool. Click on this photo to
see notes about some MyFamily.com
staff members.

Next in the waters was the MyFamily.com 2.0 group in November of 2006. TGN CEO, Tim Sullivan (at the far left in the photo to the left) established an independent team in Bellevue, Washington to produce the 2.0 version of MyFamily.com. Perhaps their distance from corporate headquarters has also produced some distance from typical corporate culture. Their blog is just what you'd hope for in a corporate blog, with Sean Malone speaking in a natural, human voice and responding to comments as often as reasonable. The MyFamily.com 2.0 Blog can be found at http://blog.myfamily.com.

Ancestry

As 2007 wore on, a couple of other managers at TGN created blogs for their groups. Kelvin Hulet of Ancestry Press, the self-publishing group, created the Ancestry Press Beta Blog in April of 2007 at http://ancestrypresscom.wordpress.com/.

Kathie Knoll, formerly of Relative Genetics, established the DNA Ancestry Beta blog on 5 September 2007 at http://ancestry.typepad.com/dna. The blog and her entry, now gone, began

5 Sep 2007 by Kathie Knoll

DNA Ancestry has indeed emerged. On August 28, our beta site was rolled out to the public. We are excited to be a part of the genetic genealogy world. Ancestry.com is recognized as the industry leader in providing services to family ...

The blog promptly disappeared and surfaced again two days later at http://dnaancestry.typepad.com. An edited version of Knoll's original message appeared over the signature of Brett Folkman, VP of DNA Ancestry.

Last week on 25 September 2007 the official public communications group at Ancestry established the official Ancestry.com blog at http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry. Within days the content of the Ancestry Press Beta blog and the DNA Ancestry Beta blog were transferred to the Ancestry.com blog and placed into categories. On the 28th of September, a Family Tree Maker blog was added, although it too is implemented as a category.

Unfortunately, the blog's current design doesn't display the category of each post so one can not easily tell the category of messages in the default view. For example, on the 4th of October the posting on the home page of the Ancestry.com blog began, "Greetings from the Development Team!" It was not until several sentences into the post that one could figure out which development team was greeting us. No doubt as Ancestry gets more experience with blogging technology they will work these kinks out.

FamilySearch Labs team L to R:
Joe Martel, Jason Butterfield,
Grant Skousen, Dan Lawyer
and Judy Rice.

FamilySearch

The first official blog from FamilySearch seems to have been the FamilySearch Labs blog which launched in October 2006, originally at www.familysearchlabs.org/blog. This blog has a great, human voice as the team photograph to the right suggests. This blog can be accessed at http://labs.familysearch.org/blog.

In January of 2007 the parent company of FamilySearch, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Church), established the LDS Church Technology Blog. I include it in this list of FamilySearch blogs because it includes a FamilySearch Forum. This blog and forum have, frankly, been a disappointment. If anyone from FamilySearch hangs out here, they're lurkers only. Moderators are, themselves, outsiders.

Church CIO, Joel Dehlin

This is a bit disappointing, considering the existence and open atmosphere of the blog of Church CIO, Joel Dehlin. I'm guessing Dehlin reports through the Church's Aaronic Priesthood and has little influence over the blogging policies of the FamilySearch department, which I'm guessing reports through the Church's Melchizedek Priesthood.

These are the only official FamilySearch blogs I'm aware of, although FamilySearch employees are known to lurk on various public Yahoo groups, sometimes posting with or without identifying themselves as such.

FamilySearch is experimenting with a private Yahoo group. The LDSFHCTech Group is "dedicated to facilitating the communication between Family History Center technical staff and FamilySearch Support." Click here for instructions on applying for membership in this private group. Only 3 messages were posted to the group in each of May and June of this year. July saw 10; August, none. At that point I had little hope for the experiment. Then September exploded into a flurry of 37 messages. Conversations are a bit wooden, but you must understand this is a highly technical group. For some technicians, I imagine the conversations are down right exhilarating.

Last month FamilySearch also began beta testing use of a wiki to answer genealogy research questions. The wiki, which can be found at http://www.familysearchwiki.org/, advertises the ability to contribute content and participate in discussion groups so is rightly included in this list.

Conclusion

Both TGN and FamilySearch have come a long way in the past twelve months. Yet both are still fighting the deep-seated fear corporations have about turning their decision makers lose to freely and publicly converse with their markets.

Still, a few short weeks ago when I began this series of articles, I would not have predicted that Ancestry would have moved so quickly in opening these important communication channels. This is an extremely positive move. Let's hope those in the corporate office can overcome corporate fear and follow the lead of their Bellevue counterparts.

FamilySearch communication policy is tethered not only by a large bureaucracy of paid employees who have brought the fears of corporate America with them, but also the unique religious objectives for FamilySearch's products. While it is obvious that an Ancestry.com should seek out and learn the desires of its consumers, a Church and religion's prime motivation might be to seek out and learn the desires of their God.

It may well be that FamilySearch faces bigger challenges than TGN as the two struggle to find the proper role of open, personal and natural conversation with their users in the bold new world of the Internet.

FamilySearch Indexing Tip: Keyboard Shortcuts

When indexing it sometimes slows you down when you have to move your hand from the keyboard to the mouse. The programmers who created FamilySearch Indexing hate to get slowed down, so they implemented a series of keyboard shortcuts. You'll find they work for you too.

Keyboard shortcuts are special key combinations you can use to accomplish some of the common tasks that might otherwise require moving your hand from your keyboard to your mouse and, a moment later, back to your keyboard.

If the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+S, that means you press and hold the Ctrl key down while momentarily tapping the S key. After tapping and releasing the S key, release the Ctrl key. For Ctrl+Shift+S, press Ctrl and Shift at the same time, then tap the S key.

Icon	Menu	Keyboard Shortcut	What It Does
	Edit > Ditto Field	Ctrl+D	Copy Field Above
	Edit > Mark Field/Record > Mark Field Blank	Ctrl+B	Mark the Field Blank
	File > Save	Ctrl+S	Save changes to disk. Do this every couple of rows.
	File > Save to Server	Ctrl+Shift+S	Save to Family Search Indexing servers. Do this every 15 min. if your Internet is fast.
		Tab or Enter	Move to next field or, if at the end-of-line, the next line.
		→	Move to next field (stopping at end-of-line).
		Shift+Tab or Shift+Enter	Move to previous field or, if at the start-of-line, the end of the previous line.
		←	Move to previous field (stopping at the start-of-line).
		F2	Change the current field. Then use arrow keys.
	View > Move Highlights > Left	Ctrl+Alt + ←	Move highlight Left.
	View > Move Highlights > Right	Ctrl+Alt + →	Move highlight Right.
	View > Move Highlights > Up	Ctrl+Alt+↑	Move highlight Up.
	View > Move Highlights > Down	Ctrl+Alt+↓	Move highlight Down.
	Edit > Lookup	Ctrl+F	Find in lookup list. (See this tip.)

More keyboard shortcuts are shown on the right-hand side of menus.

Keep your hands on the keyboard and your fingers will fly faster.

Can You Spare a Dime...

Dear Ancestry Insider,

Is there any way to work in this request for genealogy materials into your daily emails?

— L.A.

Dear FHC directors,

We are helping prisoners at the Utah State Prison and have established several family history centers here.

We now have three professional genealogists donating their time and energy. The prisoners really enjoy the classes on how to do original research and the individual help with their research.

We have noticed a great deal of hope and diligent researching shown on behalf of the men. New avenues have certainly opened to them and we see a greater desire on their part to become more professional in their behavior and outlook toward the future.

If you have duplicates in the way of books or genealogy magazines you would be willing to share, we invite you to share them with us. If you are in the Salt Lake area, contact us and we will come and pick them up.

We are doing extraction in several languages, repaging and original research. We have four centers and all are so busy that we often have to turn away patrons because we are too full and have no more computers left.

If anyone would like to join our ranks in helping these patrons learn how to do original research we would be happy to talk to you. Currently we have thirty-two couples and five singles working in the South Point Family History Center with many others serving in the other three centers. Many volunteers who volunteered for eighteen or twenty-four months have continued serving as many as ten years past their original term because of the feeling that accompanies this meaningful service.

It is interesting to see all the work being done and feel others working just as diligently on "the other side" to help us find them.

Thank you again,
Elder and Sister Arnold
Directors, South Point Family History Center

Contact LaMar and Margie Westra,
Utah Salt Lake City Area
Family History Advisors

If you, your family history center or your genealogical organization has extra materials that you'd like to donate to this worthy cause, contact LaMar and Margie Westra, Utah Salt Lake City Area Family History Advisors, at westra@xmission.com. They can put you in touch with the Arnolds.

Stories I Would Blog On If I Had the Time

I'm so behind. Lately I haven't had enough time to post breaking genealogy news and my special, insightful commentary. To catch up, here's a short word or two on many news items of the past several weeks that I would have liked to write entire articles about.

[From the Ancestry Insider's staff: The Insider thinks you're highly disappointed that you will not get the full scoop from him. We realize you're actually ecstatic. We know we are.]

PAF

The official word on PAF is It's not dead; it's only mostly dead. Presenters from FamilySearch at a recent conference said that "PAF was dead." No further development is planned. [See an article on the most excellent Renee's Genealogy Blog. —The Staff] The official stand by FamilySearch is that PAF is not dead, will continue to be supported and training in its use should continue. Renee follows up saying 3rd parties are still developing enhancements to PAF.

1900 U.S. Census Indexing

My 1900 U.S. Census Indexing article continues to draw lots of attention after Dick Eastman mentioned it in his newsletter. You might enjoy reading the passionate comments readers posted responding to his article and to mine. Thank you, Dick.

Godfrey Library

FamilySearch will be partnering with the Godfrey Library and digitizing portions of their collection according to the library director's son-in-law, Daniel Hanks.

DNA: It's Big

A Salt Lake City Deseret News article attributed a five-fold expansion of Sorenson Genomics facilities to growth estimates associated with increased business from The Generations Network (TGN), owner of Ancestry.com, and the non-profit Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation.

A new button was added to the Ancestry.com navigation bar this last week: "DNA." However, the DNA Ancestry website still indicates it is in the beta stage. As far as I know, anyone can participate in the beta. I'll post a review when I get a chance.

Ted Barnett identifies ProductCore as the company that helped build Ancestry's new DNA Ancestry service.

The Generations Network News

Ancestry.co.uk has announced it will make available for the first time 18 million important UK immigration records

The Generations Network (TGN) has been granted a U.S. patent according to Dick Eastman. The patent lists several current and former employees of the company. The importance of the patent is elusive to non-technical readers. Maybe some day I can blog about it.

TGN announced it launched a Swedish-language website. (OK, that one's slightly older than a couple weeks, but not by much.)

Get Ancestry Library Edition at Home?!?

An Eastern States public library has posted a working link to the Ancestry Library Edition (ALE). Oops. That's a violation of their contract.

I thought Tom Kemp showed integrity when he advised,

Please do not pass along or use that website. It is not up as a free service to the world. The library licenses are very clear and do not permit a library to broadcast a paid service to any/all that want to use it.

This is obviously an error. We should not be involved in passing along this information as it is an abuse of the system and not appropriate for FHCs or members to take advantage of their mistake.

He increased my opinion of human nature.

I plan on doing an article contrasting the different Ancestry.com institutional editions: ALE, Family History Library Edition, Family History Center Edition and maybe some others. Until I get around to it, click here for Rick Crume's explanation of the ALE. Ignore the FHC description; it is no longer valid. Click here for Robert Raymond's comparison of ALE and HeritageQuest Online.

He Had Tapped Me on the Shoulder

Serendipity in Genealogy:

Virtually all long-time genealogists have experienced it. It can be as simple as a thought or feeling or as dramatic as a dream or visitation. Mostly, it comes as extraordinary luck or fortuitous coincidence. This is another in the Ancestry Insider's series called "Serendipity in Genealogy."

A Psychic Roots Tale by Susan Lumas

If you can't view the video above, try this link.

New FamilySearch Coming to You!

It's been a bit since I've updated on the status of the New FamilySearch (NFS) rollout. Forgive me if you've read all this before.

Rollout Timeline

The order of the rollout still garners lots of curiosity. Official FamilySearch policy is that the list not be shared. "Part of the reason is they don't want people to desert their temple district to go somewhere there is the new stuff," said Robert on FHCNET.

To see an an example timeline for the rollout of New FamilySearch in a temple district, read a letter by Miles Meyer. To see what the login page looks like, go to http://new.familysearch.org. You can try to register, but until your district is rolling, you will get an error message. (See this source.)

October Schedule

In fact, the rollout may be temporarily on hold while some bugs are worked out, according to a FamilySearch Support rep.

Assuming no delays, here are the upcoming releases that we know about: Las Vegas was not online by 25 Sep 2007 as "announced." Doris Fenton has "been told" that Bismark, North Dakota should be online by 18 October 2007. Albuquerque, New Mexico is scheduled for either 13 October 2007 or 23 October 2007, depending on who you ask. Cardston is scheduled for 30 October 2007. Grace Bagwell "was told" that Denver is scheduled for April 2008.

NFS Announced for Wasatch Front

Clair Quilter wondered if the upcoming training for Salt Lake, Bountiful, and Jordan River Temple Districts means that New FamilySearch is coming. Yes. Someday, Clair, someday. Many sources have confirmed that the Wasatch front will be last. At the BYU genealogy conference a presenter said they hoped to roll out to 6 or 7 temples a week after the first of the year. They're trying to get it to the Wasatch Front by July 2008. I expect that will slip to October Conference.

To keep up with the latest rollout information, subscribe to the Ancestry Insider and bookmark the Insider's article, "Temple Districts Using New FamilySearch."

Beta Test New FamilySearch Affiliates

New FamilySearch (NFS) will support an Application Programming Interface (API) which lets affiliates and partners create programs and websites that access NFS, talk to it, download data from it, upload data to it, synchronize desktop genealogy data with it and even add features to it.  FamilySearch and affiliates are doing a beta test from Oct 22 to Nov 14. If you are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and have spare time during that period, you should consider becoming a beta tester.

FamilyInsight

If you wish to volunteer to beta test FamilyInsight from Ohana Software, makers of PAF Insight, read this message, posted by John Vilburn on the PAF Insight email group:

Subject: FamilyInsight (formerly PAF Insight) beta test
Date: Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:12 pm
From: John Vilburn < john@ohanasoftware >

We will be beta testing FamilyInsight starting in mid to late October. Users of PAF Insight will find it very familiar because it is the next generation of PAF Insight, with a new name.

Specifically, we will be testing the new function that synchronizes your PAF data with the new FamilySearch. The testing will take about 3 weeks. You do not have to reside in an area where the new FamilySearch has been rolled out. So, for those who don't have the new FamilySearch in their area, this will also be an opportunity to get some first-hand experience with what it will offer.

If you would like to participate in this beta test, please send an email to beta@ohanasoftware indicating your interest. At this time the new FamilySearch is only available to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, so you must be a member to participate in this test.

Aloha,
John Vilburn
Ohana Software LLC

Ancestral Quest

If you wish to volunteer to beta test a new version of Ancestral Quest that talks to New FamilySearch, read this message from Gaylon Findlay from the makers of Ancestral Quest, Incline Software:

From: Gaylon Findlay < gfindlay@ancquest.com>
Subject: [PAF-5] Beta Test Ancestral Quest with FamilySearch
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:28:54 -0600

All:

We are looking for testers for some new features in Ancestral Quest. Let me provide a little background to help you understand the nature of these enhancements.

As many of you know by now, the LDS Church has been developing a new web-based system to, as they have stated, replace TempleReady. Many rumors have abounded around whether PAF would be updated to work with this new system. Our understanding is that while PAF 5 will remain a supported product by the Church for the foreseeable future, it will remain as is. The Church has invited various commercial companies to provide programs and utilities to enhance PAF 5 and provide a means whereby PAF users can synchronize their data with the new FamilySearch system.

Ancestral Quest, from which PAF 5 was derived, is being updated now to interface with the new FamilySearch. It will allow a PAF 5 user to upload .paf data to FamilySearch, and to update the .paf data from FamilySearch. So a PAF user will be able to continue to use PAF 5, and use Ancestral Quest as a tool to handle the interface with FamilySearch. Because PAF is so similar to Ancestral Quest, we expect that after a time, users may decide to discontinue use of PAF 5, allowing Ancestral Quest to do all that PAF did for them, plus handle the interface to FamilySearch all in one program. But they will have the option of continuing to use PAF 5 and other utilities developed to enhance PAF 5.

Incline Software, the producer of Ancestral Quest, is looking for beta testers to test the new features of Ancestral Quest which provide the interface between the .paf database and the new FamilySearch system. While this could change, the Church has currently set a time period of October 22 - November 14 to do the testing. Because the new FamilySearch system is only available at this time to members of the LDS Church, only members will be able to participate in this test.

If you would like to test the new features of AQ that provide an interface between the PAF database and the new FamilySearch, and you have time to test during the test period mentioned above, and you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please send an e-mail to aqbeta@ancquest.com to confirm your interest.

Thank you,
Gaylon Findlay
Incline Software

For more information about the NFS API program, including a list of other affiliates that might be looking for beta testers, check out Renee's Genealogy Blog article, "Interfacing with NFS - Part One."

Don't Miss the Train - Part 2

"Too Late," © Josef F. Stuefer

This is the second in a four part series examining the use of blogs to open communications between consumers and companies in genealogy. In part one we introduced the Cluetrain Manifesto. In this installment we will present some of the theses from the Manifesto. In part three we'll examine the official blogs of Ancestry and FamilySearch. In the fourth and final installment, we'll talk about employee bloggers. 

These Theses

Last time we learned about the Cluetrain Manifesto, a set of 95 theses positing that technology allows consumers to form strong, online communities that won't suffer companies to continue marketing in manipulative monotones. Companies must open honest, candid lines of communication between individual consumers and individual employees or perish.

Today we'll learn more about the manifesto by going through some of the theses I believe are still applicable. I've slightly edited some, but given the original manifesto numbers in parentheses.

• Markets consist of human beings. (2)
• Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice. (3)
• Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived. (4)
• Networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange. (9)
• As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. (10)
• People in networked markets have figured out that they get far more honest information and better support from one another than from vendors. (11)

Allow me to comment on #11. Think back to the problem of using personal Ancestry accounts at the Family History Library. Did the first solution come from the vendor or the networked market?

• There are no secrets. The networked market knows about companies and their products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone. (12)

Sorry to interrupt again so soon. Think back. How have you heard about New Family Search rollouts? Allow me to say just three words: "Internet Biographical Collection." Enough said.

• Corporations do not speak in the same voice as these new networked conversations. To their intended online audiences, companies sound hollow, flat, literally inhuman. (14)

As an example, compare two messages from Ancestry announcing the removal of the Internet Biographical Collection (IBC): an official message and a personal message. Could the difference be any clearer?

• Companies that don't realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity. Companies can now communicate with their markets directly. (18 and 19)
  
  Copyright Olesha
• Companies need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to the people with whom they hope to create relationships. (25)
• There are two conversations going on. One inside the company. One with the market. (53)
• These two conversations want to talk to each other. They are speaking the same language. They recognize each other's human voices. (56)
• Sadly, the part of the company a networked market wants to talk to is usually hidden. (61)
• [Silence] is suicidal. Markets want to talk to companies. We are those markets. We want to talk to you. (60 and 63)
• We've got some ideas for you too: some new tools we need, some better service. Stuff we'd be willing to pay for. Got a minute? (76)
• You're too busy "doing business" to answer our emails, message board posts and comments on your blog? Oh gosh, sorry, gee, we'll come back later. Maybe. (77)

As my editorial policy states, I defend Ancestry. I love Ancestry. But if I could change just one thing at Ancestry, I would abolish their culture of unresponsiveness. See, for example, this chain of 69 user complaints. Users literally pled for a response that never came. Listen to the anguish:

* I would appreciate if you would respond to some of the questions asked above. (AC Lynch)

* Please reply- it is very difficult communicating with you (Judith Hiatt)

* Ancestry, do you see these complaints? Why don’t you address them by answering, either here or on your website. People have legitimate concerns and deserve to have some answers from you. (Gail Ahrens)

* no one will answer my e-mails begging for help. Not even a form letter. (Donna Corley)

* You might as well e-mail to a brick wall when trying to get a response from Ancestry. (Barb Conrad)

Ancestry's silence fanned the flaming emotions. The tirade of angry comments grew longer and louder. It was painful to watch, particularly because Ancestry was improving in the criticized areas. Why not tell them?

* Why, after 45 comments, is there still no rebuttal from the HQ of Ancestry.com? I think a clear, logical response should be forthcoming in an attempt to justify or find excuses for the many unhappy commentaries!! (SAM K. BOOT)

* I e-mailed you weeks ago... You never responded. (Deborah Daley)

* Does anyone at Ancestry even read these complaints? (Louise Williams)

* please honor those of us who have been loyal with answers to the many complaints... Please treat us as family and answer. (brenda)

* Ancestry, your lack of communication and customer service stinks...It’s wonderful that you keep adding databases, but it won’t be enough to save you when you really get some competition. (Donde)

* Well! Just finished reading all the critiques and I’m floored that there have been no answers posted. Is this spot just for us to let off steam and go away? ...Because of all these comments, I will not be a long-time member, that’s for certain. Are you listening, Ancestry.com? Probably not. (Dina Bensen)

* Come on Ancestry you have our money - now give us some answers to all the above comments and complaints! (Carlene Eaton)

Which leads to thesis 78

• You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention. (78)
• Don't worry, you can still make money. (80)
• Your product broke. Why? We'd like to ask the guy who made it. Your corporate strategy makes no sense. We'd like to have a chat with your CEO. What do you mean she's not in?  (82)

Want to talk to WorldVitalRecords's CEO? Just visit his blog.

"Can they come out and play?"
Copyright fluca
• We know some people from your company. They're pretty cool online. Do you have any more like that you're hiding? Can they come out and play? (84)
• When we have questions we turn to each other for answers. If you allowed "your people" to talk maybe they'd be among the people we'd turn to. (85)
• If you don't quite see the light, some other outfit will come along that's more attentive, more interesting, more fun to play with. (89)

OK, so that last set is self-serving for an employee blogger. But that's a topic for later in the series.

Well? What do you think? Believable or rubbish? Would open communications have prevented the IBC debacle? What about Ancestry's practice of public silence? Does it shorten or prolong wildfires? Leave me a comment, question or complaint. I'm listening.

Ancestry.com Adds Corporate Blog

Last Tuesday Ancestry.com launched a new corporate blog:

http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/

A sidebar welcome message says, "Here you will find informational, and sometimes fun, posts from the folks behind the scenes here at Ancestry. We hope you’ll notice just how passionate we are about family history and about the products we're building to help connect families over distance and time."

The blog has one post thus far, by Suzanne Bonner.

The Ancestry Insider glibbly took credit for this advance, bragging to his staff, "It's no coincidence that the company took this step after I began my editorial series calling for them to join the online conversation."

Great. Wait until he figures out they've just eliminated the need for his blog. The entire staff will be out on the street.

"I hope so," said the Insider. "I hope so."

FamilySearch Indexing Tip: Birth Year Quiz Answer

At the end of last week's FamilySearch Indexing tip, the Ancestry Insider gave a "pop quiz." The question was, "What year would you enter for the record shown to the right" from the 1900 U.S. Census? We received three very insightful comments.

Dino (All Dino, All The Time) said,

I'd have to record 1887.

It looks like the numerals in 1886 are all the same size and the 7 was written larger and darker to make it clear that it was an emendation.

Dear Dino,

We didn't even know emendation was a word, until our spell checker got a crack at it. The Insider claims he knew. And to prove it he waltzed in Tuesday morning and announced, "I received an emendation for bravery in the War!" Hee hee. We tittered behind his back, "So he started the war as a coward?!"

Anonymous "ByTheBook" wrote,

According to the project information for the Georgia census record (and it's the same for all the other 1900 census records I've done) you should use 1887 because: "Many fields may contain corrected or crossed-out information. ... When information is crossed out and then replaced, type the new data into the appropriate fields."

Dear ByTheBook,

We're glad you've carefully read the instructions and you're young enough to remember what it was you read. Some of us here at the Insider's office can remember back when we could remember things. Some of us just wish we could remember back to when we still remembered being able to remember things.

The Ancestry Insider weighed in saying, "Because the emendation itself is the vehicle for emending the non-emended data, technically, the non-emendated data is not separately crossed out."

While the Insider won't concede your point, we think you're right. Dino makes the case that the "7" was the correction. And even though the "6" is not separately crossed-out, writing over the top of it effectively crosses it out.

Chad Milliner, a good friend of one of our staff members, concurred.

To me, it appears as if the "7" was added later by a clerk, trying to correct what otherwise would be an impossible age. But what if the year of birth as written originally by the enumerator was correct, and it was the age that was wrong? In that case, the clerk's "correction" would have made one wrong piece of data into two wrong pieces. Thus, if I could accurately determine what it was that the enumerator originally wrote, I would key that year, not the "7". If I could not figure out what it was the clerk originally wrote, then...

"Truly, you have a dizzying intellect!" the Insider interrupted. He's so rude. Still, office protocol demands following a movie quote with the next line, so several voices answered in near unison, "Wait 'til I get going!"

We challenged the Insider, "If you're so smart, what is your answer?"

"If you had followed the link to the hint I gave," the Insider intoned superciliously, "you would have found that enumerators were to record the age at their last birthday previous to June 1st." The form itself only mentions recording the age at their last birthday.

As we learned last time, the birth year and age add up to 1899 or 1900. Looking at the example to the right you can see that in months previous to June 1, the birth year and age add to 1900. For June to December, they add to 1899.

"Since the child turned 13 in January, the year should be 1887," announced the Insider.

While the Insider ended up at the right answer this time, he did so for the wrong reason. He should have finished reading Milliner's message because he may not always be so lucky.

Milliner points out that entering something at odds with the instructions, is like "tilting at a windmill, since [you are] keying something different from the other keyer, and the arbitrator [will] side with what the other keyer used."

Milliner further makes the suggestion that "FamilySearch Indexing [provide a] way for a keyer to note to the arbitrator why it was he or she keyed something the way he or she did." That's a good suggestion. Thanks, Chad.

The Nervous Green Duck, reborn

When the Family Tree Maker (FTM) team saw the original Nervous Green Duck, they loved it and just had to have one of their own. They created one with an FTM theme and the two stood side-by-side for awhile.

But over-exposure made the Nervous Green Duck nervous and he has flown the coop. The Nervous Green Insider blamed us (his staff) for failing to recognize that some blog readers do not honor the hidden attribute we used on the duck's image, exposing him to discovery and ridicule. (We weren't sure if he were speaking of himself or the duck.)

Regardless, the Insider blamed us and we are sorry--for ourselves, not for the duck. You see, the Insider made us create animated images to replace the ones that were lost. Duck 1 shows the rejection of the old corporate name and image. Duck 2, the new FTM image. With no further ado, here's our versions of... "the Nervous Green Duck."

The Ancestry Insider's version of the Nervous Green Duck
Quack!! Quack!!

The Insider Staff gratefully acknowledges the original creator(s) of The Nervous Green Duck, which can no longer be seen at the website, http://www.nervousgreenduck.com/.

Ancestry Titles Available in FHCs

Last Wednesday the Insider reported that Ancestry.com had decreased the number of titles available to patrons of FamilySearch's Family History Centers (FHCs). The Insider has learned this morning that the change was a display glitch; Ancestry had not changed the databases available to FHCs. Users were still able to use all 43 databases, even though only 9 were displayed on the availability list.

The two screen shots to the right show the correct 43-database list and the incorrect 9-database list that was displayed for a number of days.You can see this page for yourself here. The Insider understands that the Salt Lake Family History Library enjoys a little larger list. He'll post that list when he gets a chance.

In addition to these 43 databases, there are dozens of free databases at Ancestry. See Cyndi's list of free Ancestry databases and databases marked FREE in the Ancestry card catalog. While the Ancestry Family History Center edition blocks access to most free databases, one can switch to www.ancestry.com to view them at a Family History Center.

Most everyone knows that earlier this year Ancestry cut back on the number of databases it made freely available to patrons of FHCs. The Insider has received tips of FHCs or individual staff members that have purchased full Ancestry subscriptions for patron use and carefully administer the subscription within a narrow interpretation of Ancestry's terms and conditions. The Insider understands that both Ancestry and FamilySearch frown upon this practice. While no known security holes exist, there is always the possibility that a patron could discover confidential information about the subscriber.