Genealogy Trails Host Information Page
maintained by Dena Whitesell
Updated May 16,2009

About Us	Web Tools	FAQ	Graphics
Getting Noticed	Useful Data Links	Useful State Links	HTML Help
Our Resources	Copyright	Page Helpers	Some GT Web Pages to use
I need help with...	Recommended Graphic Sizes	Visually impaired web pages	We should be Proud

About Us: Genealogy Trails Hosts: Here you will find ALL current GT hosts, their state/county and e-mail address, and maybe their personal biography.  http://genealogytrails.com/about/ State Host list and State Adoption list:  Here you will find ALL US States and the name of the State host and e-mail address.  http://genealogytrails.com/main/adoption.html Our Yahoo Group:  This is our group for private discussion.  We can communicate with each other, discuss ideas, give suggestions and opinions, find help, chat, etc. Subscription to this mailing list is required of all hosts. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/genietrailhosts/ Yahoo Groups - our photo album http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/genietrailhosts/photos?m=t Data sources:  Here you will find a list of those of use who have data they are willing to share to other hosts.  This data may be CD of census, books, and other types of genealogy data.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/genietrailhosts/database?method=reportRows&tbl=1 Volunteer Information Page:  http://genealogytrails.com/main/volunteerinfo.html#top

FAQs page.  Kim has put together this page to help ALL GT host.  Here you will find information on data issues, organizing your data, HTML helps and hints, webpage graphic links and color aids, and some FAQ's.  Check this page out first, then come back here for additional info.:  http://genealogytrails.com/ill/faqs.html Genealogy Trails Graphics: put together your pages then link these graphics to them..... GT Graphics:  http://genealogytrails.com/graphics GT State Graphics:  http://genealogytrails.com/graphics/state/graphics_states.html GT Map Graphics:  http://genealogytrails.com/mo/graphics/usmapgraphics.htm When using Genealogy Trails graphics from the about sites, please link to them.  Roger has a tutorial on how to do that. Recommended Graphic Sizes Class pictures - less than 90kb Large family photos - less than 80kb Single portrait photos - under 20kb Single tombstone pictures - under 40kb (crop out the grass!) Buttons - under 5kb Lines - under 5 kb Backgrounds - under 25 kb Decorative pictures - no more than 30kb Midi's and wav's - none at this time please (bandwidth hogs) Plat maps - break them up, shrink them down or post on photobucket Type out scanned obituaries rather than posting a gif or jpg of them. Text should be less than 100K for the fastest loading pages...  Census pages are usually closer to 200K. Graphics you add to the page will also add to the "weight" of the page and will add to the download time. Pdf files: We prefer transcribing (as compared to uploading a graphic or pdf) so the search engines can read the pages and also to save on server space since graphics and pdfs are usually much bigger than text. More Graphics: Mix and Match Borders:  http://www.artistic-designers.com/bkgds/mixnmatch.html Colored backgrounds - this site will give you the code needed to add that special color to your pages: http://users.rcn.com/giant.interport/COLOR/1ColorSpecifier.html Absolute Graphics:  http://www.grsites.com/webgraphics/ Emmas Triplets: http://wtv-zone.com/emma/triples.html Visual Arts Academy: http://visual-arts-academy.com/mixnmatch/index.html Tools To Make Those Pages Work Perfectly You'll need a program (called FTP) to upload your web pages.  Here is one that many of the hosts use: FTP commander - download it here or here. Link Validator (free):  http://www.htmlvalidator.com/ - Lite Edition. This is a link validator program. Here is another link validator that is free called Xenu: http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html If you're trying to shrink a picture, shrink it properly with a graphics program (like Web Optimizer or PicSizer). Setting it smaller in a HTML program with percentages make the picture smaller but does not make the file size smaller -- you're not saving anybody any download time.        Web Optimizer - 30day free trial.  Use this program to 'shrink' down you images before uploading: http://www.webopt.com/        PicSizer - a Free image optimizer  http://www.axiomx.com/picsizer.htm        Dynamic Drive - another Free image optimizer, with nothing to download.  You upload your photo, and it does the work http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/imageoptimizer/ Bulk Replacer - Bulk Replacer is a FreeWare find and replace tool that spans all the files under a specified directory. Exceptionally easy and fast to use, you can also test out the process before committing to it: http://www.simonhuggins.com/arctan/replacer/index.html HTML coding problems: this will highlight errors and allow you to make corrections and "SAVE" and validate again to check, etc. http://www.htmlvalidator.com/ Photo Bucket:  If you have LOTS of photos, use this site to upload them, then link the photo to your page. This will save on our bandwidth. Graphics program - GIMP - this program is FREE GRSites Button Maker - a free and easy site for making buttons Cool Test Graphics Generator - another FREE site for making buttons/graphics ABBYY Screenshot Reader - a GREAT tool to save you time in transcribing.  It copies the image into text format.  You need to proofread this, but the errors are minimal...it helps if you magnify your image first.  This program is not FREE but it is CHEAP....really CHEAP Getting your site noticed: IF anyone has any links that they want to add to linkpendium (promoting your site) you can go here , click on the State and county you want and you'll see where you can add the url's:  http://www.linkpendium.com/genealogy/USA/ Cyndi's List:  http://www.cyndislist.com/ Genealogy Directory:  http://www.all-genealogysites.com/Free_Genealogy/ Rootsweb:  Ask the rootsweb mailing list owner for your area if you can post your updates to their mailing list.  Expect a no, but they may surprise you.  http://www.rootsweb.com  and select a mailing list from the area. Open Directory:  a little complicated and it may take a while before you see your site listed.  http://www.dmoz.org/add.html yahoo.com -  scroll down to the bottom and select "suggest a site" If you can get in to msn.com - see if they accept site submissions Submit to google here:  http://www.google.com/intl/en/about.html  and select submit your content Transcribe a census and submit it to census-online. com

Useful Links to find Great Data: National Archives Access to Archival Databases (AAD) - http://aad.archives.gov/aad/index.jsp Census Pensioners - original census images of ALL states: http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1840c-01.pdf American Jewish Archives: http://www.americanjewisharchives.org/ Library of Congress:  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html Wikipedia the free encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Newspapers and Magazine The New York Times: search their archives for older data - http://www.nytimes.com/ Time Magazine: search their archives for older data - http://www.time.com/time Paper of Records - Historical Newspapers:  http://www.paperofrecord.com/ Small Town Papers:  http://www.smalltownpapers.com/ Northern New York Historical Newspapers:  http://news.nnyln.net/ Google Books: whole books online. Searchable, can be downloaded as a full book in pdf or you can view the book in text format and copy/paste as needed.  Place name of county, and state in search box and then have FUN.  http://books.google.com/bkshp?hl=en&tab=wp Maps:  http://www.nationalatlas.gov/ US State Flags:  http://mapsofworld.com/usa/state-flags/index.html Documenting the American South:  http://docsouth.unc.edu/browse/collections.html The West:  http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/ Military Books Online (FREE):  http://www.history.army.mil/online/Bookshelves/books-era.htm

Usefull Links by State: The Illinois Secretary of State has a website where they list all of the government records for the soldiers and sailors of past wars. It is located here: http://www.cyberdriveillinois. com/departments/ archives/ datcivil. html on the website, you can get all kinds of data about the various military organizations and the persons serving in them. The exciting part of it is though, that you can order Xeroxed copies of this information.  Also try this link:  http://www.idaillinois.org/

Resource available to us: Ask Kim for the passwords Godfrey Library Genealogybank.com World Vital Records.com Footnote.com Heritage Quest Library

Copyright: Any time you transcribe something from an original source document, you do not have to credit anyone but yourself.  An "original source document" is a census image, it's an old newspaper, it's an old history book, it's the ww1 draft cards, its old muster rolls... etc...  If you transcribe it, it's yours.  Put your name on it as the transcriber and you're done.  You do not need to give the holder of the original source document any credit whatsoever.  However, it's never wrong to mention the original source that you did the transcribing from - i.e. The 1910 census, The WPA Project 1938-1940; 1918 draft cards, FHL microfilm of births 1780-1820, etc.... --- that sort of thing.   Now - Ancestry's transcribed indexes are technically theirs and technically you shouldn't copy and paste them... here's the exception though ---- if it's nothing but names and dates, you can use those names and dates and put them into your own format.  Names and dates are facts and facts cannot be copyrighted.  Beware though - ancestry's transcriptions have around a 40% error rate.  If you use their transcriptions, you too will have a 40% error rate. If you transcribe from a publication filled with facts that is still covered under copyright law, but you add something substantial and "original" to it, then you have just created an original work and own a copyright to it.  Add links to obits, add a bio, add spouses' names, add parents names - add something original to make it yours, and then there are no copyright issues.   What you absolutely cannot do is to go to an individual's website - see something you like, and copy and paste THEIR transcribed data onto your site.  That's wrong.  Unethical.  Illegal.  Bad.  Don't do it.  You wouldn't like it if they came to your site and took your data for their own, so don't do it to them.  You CAN however, go to the same original source document they used and transcribe it for yourself.  Just because they transcribed the 1910 census doesn't mean you can't also.  But you have to do it from scratch.  They have a cemetery they transcribed?  You can go to the same cemetery and transcribe it for yourself.  Same for courthouse records - go to the courthouse and transcribe them for yourself.  Find some microfilm records that are really interesting?  Order the film from FHL and transcribe them yourself.   And don't try and "fudge" it and say you transcribed it if you didn't... many webmasters deliberately put mistakes in or some other identifying marks in there that let them prove their work.  I do it myself - one of the things I do is sometimes I put no periods in after certain middle initials.  Mix them up - one here but not there, and you have a pretty good way to identify your work if it gets lifted.  The point is, people know their own work and will be very offended if you steal it.  If someone accuses you, you should be polite, say you'll look into it and then make sure and bring me in on the situation early - BEFORE it has exploded.  That's why they pay me the big bucks...Kim "If there is no copyright listed in the book -- then it's ok to use it...."  That's not exactly true....    Nowadays, the law is that anything created is automatically covered, whether it has a date on it or not.   But that wasn't always the case, and the older something is, and we're talking 1960's and prior, then it's most likely ok to use if it doesn't.  Avoid problems by always CITING YOUR SOURCE.  If it's a hand-written document, there is probably no copyright issue especially if there's no author's name.  If it's an old-fashioned typed document with no copyright date, you are probably ok to use it.  If there's no author, almost definitely ok to use.  The old DAR publications are *usually* ok to use as well.    Cite your source in all cases and you will avoid problems. Follow these guidelines and you won't go wrong: Works published before Jan. 1, 1923 are in the public domain - anyone can use, adapt or copy a published work freely. Works published between 1923 and 1963 were protected for 28 years - but the copyright could be renewed for 47 years, then extended for another 20. If the copyright wasn't renewed, the work is in the public domain. [The article notes that] about 85 percent of works published during this period aren't protected anymore. If a work was published between 1964 and 1977, the copyright lasts a total of 95 years. Any published or unpublished work created on or after Jan. 1, 1978 is protected for the life of the creator plus 70 years. A work created before Jan. 1, 1978 and published between that date and Dec. 31, 2002 is protected for the life of the creator plus 70 years or until Dec. 31, 2047, whichever is greater. For more information on copyright laws, go here: http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/public_domain/

Additional HTML tutorials: Left side border page:  http://www.angelfire.com/art/CountryGirl/leftbrdrtut.html Excel to HTML:  http://www.genealogytrails.com/ill/mason/tuts/excel/excel_tutorial.html Merging Columns in Excel:  http://genealogytrails.com/ill/mason/tuts/merge/merge_tutorial.html Netscape Composer 7.2:  http://genealogytrails.com/ill/netscapehowto.html#linksandanchors HTML Goodies:  http://www.htmlgoodies.com/ Page Tutorial:  http://www.pagetutor.com/html_tutor/index.html Right Click - code used to stop others from copying your information by Fawn Cemetery pictures as pop-ups:  Kristin has put together this tutorial Submit Info Box: by Nannette 'Fixing' Background - code used to keep the background image stationary while scrolling down your page (by Kimmer).

Additional Links to help make your web pages the best: Free Find - a search engine that is easily set up onto your index page:  http://www.freefind.com Picosearch - another search engine  http://www.picosearch.com/ Site Meter - keep track of those visitor:  http://www.sitemeter.com/ Statcounter - this counter allows you to view all your sites' statistics at once http://www.statcounter.com/ SiteLevel - another FREE search engine http://www.sitelevel.com/ Histats - a web page counter...a little different then those mentioned about:  http://www.histats.com/

Interesting Genealogy Trails Web Pages: Outlaw page - if you have an OUTLAW of interest e-mail Janice.  She will link your page to this one. Chuck Wagon page - an interesting page that lists some very old recipes. Dictionary - medical and other terms you may not know.  Link to this page. Cemetery Adventure - safety tips put together by Candi.  Link this page to you site. http://genealogytrails.com/mo/ceme_adventures.htm

I Need Help With: Legal Terms: don't know what that legal term means?  You may be able to find it at law.com