|
FAQ
Q: Alrighty, I've joined Genealogy Trails. Now what?
A: We are really glad to have you join us. Your "job" as a dedicated (but, alas, unpaid) volunteer is
to transcribe data and put it online. You need to get an html editor (or use the "Notepad" software already
on your computer) and some genealogical data and start transcribing. Work at your own pace. Type it up in html
format and when you're done, you'll need to upload it onto our server. To put it onto our server so Mr. and Mrs.
Researcher can see it from the comfort of their living room couch, you'll need an FTP software (see links below
for free FTP Commander and not free anymore WS-FTP).
Hopefully you've read our volunteer page, so that pretty
much spells out the rules. Transcribe data and we're happy. We don't want banner ads, no commercial advertising,
no links to "pay-fers" like ancestry.com (they don't need our help). Ask genweb hosts first before linking
to their sites - some prefer us not to. We aren't real big on links anyway - our goal is to become the sites that
other folks link to. You don't have to provide any links at all if you don't want, though a local library or courthouse
link would be helpful to researchers.
We transcribe the data rather than uploading pictures of it and our data files
are in html format, trying to keep the webpages as simple as possible for the fastest loading possible. We do not
use pdf files due to their large size, the long time they take to actually open and the fact they do not get included
in search engines.
The next step is to design the county's index page to your own liking, adding your name and email addy, using your
own colors/backgrounds if you prefer. Please keep the links to any current data already on there.
Our graphics page for logos is here: http://genealogytrails.com/graphics
Feel free to use any you'd like.
Free Counters are available at http://sitemeter.com or http://www.statcounter.com
A Free search engine is available at http://freefind.com
Once you're ready to "go live" and you've uploaded your index page to our server, Kim will subscribe
you to our hosts private mailing list and announce you to everyone.
We also have a "regional" mailing list you should subscribe yourself to from http://genealogytrails.com/trailsmail.html
Our hosts use the regional lists to announce our website updates to the researchers.
We have an "About Us" page to read up on who's who in
the group and you are more than welcome to submit a short bio on yourself to Kim when you get settled in.
As for the $10 dues, we take care of that in January/February. When the time comes, I prefer paypal. KimmySueT
@ aol.com is the email addy. Or if it's a financial hardship, then never mind :-) It's not a big deal and we don't
want to lose a host over it.
Those are pretty much the basics to get you up and running... you'll pick up the details as you go along.
If you have any questions about anything, let Kim know. I am online most days and check emails at night. Once you're
subscribed to the host mailing list, there's always someone who's online that can answer any questions that pop
up.
The next step is to download the index page from the server and get to work on making it your own.
Q: Who's in charge?
A: Kim. Email her at KimmySueT@aol.com
Barb Ziegenmeyer is co-moderator for the host mailing list.
Other mailing list moderators are:
Northeast Coastal States: Peggy Thompson
Northeast States: Nancy Piper
Southeast States: Dena Whitesell
Upper Midwest States: Dan Worthington
Midwest States: Don Tharp
Southern States: Karen Seeman
Southwest States: Barb Ziegenmeyer
Western States: Shauna Williams
Pacific Coastal States: Shauna Williams
African-American: Kim T.
For further info on the mailing list, visit http://genealogytrails.com/trailsmail.html
Q: I need a logo.... where do I get one?
A: http://www.genealogytrails.com/ill/graphics
Q: I don't like the logos - I think I can make one that looks better.
A: We have many different colors and varieties available, so you should be able to find something to your liking.
It's our official logo and as part of our group, you're expected to use them - otherwise, what's the point of being
affiliated with a group??? So.....please - use the logos we've created as we've created them. Don't stretch them
out or shrink them down or colorize them or un-colorize them. Please. Really....Please. Thanks!
Q: None of the logos match my color scheme. Can I take one of them and change the color?
A: Please don't. They never look right after that.
Q: Can I use music on my website?
A: Not at this time. Music takes up bandwidth and we pay for bandwidth.
Q: Geez, I've been a host for a week and already people are sending me data contributions. What am I supposed
to do with them?
A: Lucky you! Some of the smaller, less populated counties don't EVER get data contributions! You are responsible
for typing up and formatting the contributions and putting them online. MAKE SURE TO GIVE THE CONTRIBUTOR CREDIT!
It will inspire them to contribute more and will also help identify it if you are ever asked to remove the data.
Q: They sent me a HUGE picture of Uncle Joe and Aunt Sally. Do I have to use it?
A: No you don't. Explain to the researcher that "due to server space constraints, we regret that we are unable
to accept graphics of this size". Not to mention the fact that Uncle Joe and Aunt Sally are only important
to that particular researcher. We prefer to use pictures that help many researchers rather than the one (i.e. class
pictures, etc.) If you do decide to accept it, than shrink it down to a useable size using a paint-type program
or one of the gif/jpg crunchers listed below. Our graphics page at http://genealogytrails.com/ill/graphics/
gives guidelines for how large graphics should be.
Q: My county on the state map doesn't show it as hosted yet. Why not?
A: Try refreshing/reloading the page. If it's still showing the county as unhosted, it's quite possible that in
our haste to get you up to speed on you everything you need to know, we forgot to fill in the color. Email your
state host with a gentle reminder.
Q: When do I need to pay the annual dues?
A: February. That is when Kim has to pay the server bill.
Q: What do you use the money for?
A: It pays for our unlimited server space with 500gb mb of bandwidth. This has proved to be more than sufficient
for our needs. $10 annually with our current host count more than pays for that and leaves a little left over to
purchase data to transcribe.
USEFUL LINKS FOR GENEALOGY TRAILS WEBMASTERS
MAILING LISTS
Q: I got an email from a mailing list telling me I'm now subscribed to them. What's that all about? I didn't
ask to be subscribed to any list.
A: All hosts are required to be subscribed to our private host mailing list - that's how we communicate with each
other.
Q: Which list is for what?
A: An excellent question! The genietrailhosts@yahoogroups.com is for HOSTS ONLY! You can chat about whatever you want.
Any other regional mailing list is for announcing your website updates to the researchers subscribed to those lists
and you can subscribe yourself to those lists at http://genealogytrails.com/trailsmail.htm
Genealogy Trails Mailing lists for other states can be found at http://genealogytrails.com/trailsmail.htm
Hosts should subscribe to their state's "regional" mailing list so they will be able to announce their
website updates to the researchers on those lists.
Q: Oops! I sent an email meant for the genietrailhosts chat list to the trails list. I said some not nice things
about a researcher in that email.
A: ...sigh... It happens to everybody and it's incredibly embarrassing for everyone involved when it does happen.
Just be careful next time and double-check the address box before hitting "send".
MESSAGE BOARDS
Q: Do we have them?
A: No.... We used to and folks loved them, but we were hacked twice, the second time being in the most secure administrative
areas of the boards, and for security reasons to the rest of our websites, we decided they were not worth it. You
can use some other service's message boards if you like. They will be your responsibility though....
DATA ISSUES
Q: Where am I supposed to find the data to transcribe?
A: Yikes. If you've gotten this far and you don't have data to transcribe, then we have really messed up on our
host screening process. Our apologies.... because we try and make sure all hosts have access to data BEFORE we
"hire" them. However, now that you're onboard as a host, click here for sites
where you can buy stuff to transcribe. Make sure to check EBAY and Half.com for history books and cd's. Watch out
for copyright laws!
Q: What are the copyright laws?
A: Let me put on my lawyer hat.... People go to school for years to learn this stuff, and I didn't. BUT, I read
articles and here is an excerpt from the best one I've read that pertains to genealogy:
[Article start]
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.
[End of article]
No, there isn't any way to check if the copyright was renewed. So it is your decision whether to use the piece
or not. If you do, then make sure and give credit to the author (cite your source, which is always a good practice
to follow). If an author writes you to complain, remove it. ANYTHING published by the government is ok to use -
they used our taxpayer $ to publish it, so it technically belongs to you and me anyway.
I usually try and stick with using raw data (names and dates type of stuff which are facts and aren't generally
protected by copyright laws) published before 1940. A word of caution - if you are found to be violating copyright
laws, you could be personally liable, i.e., you can be personally sued. So, be careful in what you choose to transcribe.
Do not transcribe published material from genealogical or historical socieites - they don't like it and are pretty
vocal about it. And if you are EVER asked to remove data from a website, DO IT! If you write an author and ask
for permission to use their published material, get their permission in writing and forward Kim a copy of it.
Q: This stupid census-taker misspelled these peoples' names. I KNOW they're wrong. Should I change them?
A: NO! Transcribe EXACTLY as you read it. You can put the 'correct' spelling in [brackets] noting the source. And
careful - that stupid census-taker could be one of your ancestors! (In fact, I was once transcribing a census,
cussing out the census-taker and his rotten handwriting the whole way, only to realize that it WAS one of my ancestors!!!)
Q: A researcher wrote and told me to change his family's spelling. Should I?
A: Again, no. (Unless you know for sure that it's a transcription typo on your part) Family names changed spelling
very often and it could be that one branch spelled it one way while another branch spelled it another way. Erase
the one, and you cut off another researchers' chance to identify his family. You can put the 'correct' spelling
in [brackets] noting the source. Most researchers will accept this solution. If they still don't like it, too bad.
It's your website to present as you please.
Q: A researcher wrote and asked me to link to his website. I went to view it, and it's not that good. Do I need
to provide a link?
A: No you don't. Links are discretionary - if you like a site, link. We have a main page where we provide links
so you don't really need to provide links to the more popular sites --- unless you want to. And remember - Links
are an excuse for a viewer to leave your website. Why go to all the trouble to make a website, then give a viewer
a reason to leave it?
Q: They have all my county's data on the genweb site. Can't I just link to that?
A: No. We transcribe our own data. Genweb is its own project and we are not associated with them. One could almost
say we are competitors. Some hosts have worked out mutual linking agreements with them and that's fine. As a rule
though, don't link to genweb's data without permission.
Q: I want to transcribe the Genealogical/Historical Society's cemetery [birth/death/marriage/census] publication.
Can I?
A: Write them and ask them. Expect them to say NO! They make $$ selling them - we want to give it away for free.
They don't like that.
Q: Do I have to accept family trees and gedcoms? This researcher sent me 2000 names of her tree!
A. No you don't. Family trees are often filled with errors and un-cited sources. Instead, explain gently and politely
that due to server space constraints, we don't have the room to post everybody's trees. Instead, what we want from
her is the raw data she used to put together her tree - the marriage/death/birth/cemetery records, etc.
Q: Somebody stole my data!
A: It happens amazingly often. Lots of times, folks don't realize that this is a bad thing. Try emailing and explaining.
There's not a whole lot we can do about this. If it's a genweb person, email them. If that doesn't work, email
the genweb state coordinator. That should do the trick.
Q: I lost all my data due to a virus. My whole website is gone. What do I do now?
A: Make sure your computer is virus-free. Sign into the ftp space and your county. From there you can download
your whole website back onto your hard drive. And remember.... ALWAYS BACK UP!
Q: Can I store my personal website on the Genie Trails server?
A: NO!!! The server is for our project only.
Q: I'm a grandma/grandad! Can I post a cute picture of the baby on the server so all the hosts can see him/her?
A: awwww.... congrats! ok - but make it quick. Delete it after a week.
Q: What is the "County of the Month" and how do I win?
A: We occasionally pick a county website to feature on the main index page of the Trails website. If chosen, you
also get a nice award to post on your site. The link remains all during the month, the award can stay on your page
as long as you want. We base the decision on the previous month's updates - quality vs. quantity. Put up a census
single-handedly, and you're in good running for the award. We also take into consideration the individual efforts
of the host (vs. a host who has "helpers"). In order to be considered, you need to announce your updates
to the researchers on the researchers' mailing list for your region. Winning this award can increase visitors to
your website by an average of 15% - though some sites have increased their visitor hits as high as 30% (yes, I
calculated it). We also have other types of promotions we run occasionally to help bring in visitors to the county
sites. They are run at Kim's discretion, but I'm more than willing to hear suggestions.
Q: For Illinois sites: How do I get my county featured on the Illinois Genealogy Trails main page?
A: Announce an update during the month and I'll put a link to your site on the main Illinois Trails Index page
(http://genealogytrails.com/ill) If you don't announce the update on the illinoistrails@groups.yahoo.com researcher
mailing list, then I won't see it and you won't get the link.
ORGANIZING YOUR DATA
Q: What's the best way to keep the data on my site organized?
A: It depends on the type of data.
Obituaries, Biographies and really all vital records (Marriages/Births/Deaths) are best alphabetized by last name.
There are two ways to do this:
1. You can name your webpages obitsA.html, obitsB.html, (or marriages_A, deaths_A) etc... and place the individual
listings on the corresponding surname page and add a note that folks should use their browser's FIND function (CTRL
F) to search for exact names
2. You can have a list of the available names in alpha order and link directly to each item using anchors. This
is time-consuming, but you'll end up with nice neat pages and works best for biographies and obituaries. The vital
records are best just alphabetized, rather than listed by year.
Census data is best organized by year, then township.
Cemeteries can be listed either alphabetically or by township and then as your listings grow, keep burials in alphabetical
order, eventually on their own pages..
Q: How do I create a clickable state map?
A: In Frontpage: Select the map graphic you want to use in FrontPage and then click view-toolbars-pictures (or
images). Once that pops up select the polygonal tool. Trace the outline of the county on the map, once it connects
in a complete shape, up will pop up the box to link to a URL. Enter the url, then repeat for the next county.
PEOPLE ISSUES
Q: Another host was nasty to me. What do I do?
A: Try and work it out. If you can't or the situation has deteriorated, email Kim. KEEP IT OFF THE MAILING LIST!
The rest of us don't want to be involved in a personal situation. If it's a genealogy question that has made things
go south for you, email Kim privately. We're a diverse group of folks, all with our own personalities. Keep in
mind that things don't always sound the way we meant them in emails.
Q: This researcher was REALLY nasty to me. What do I do?
A: Tough one.... How serious is it? Do you need to work it out with him? Perhaps just moving on and blocking his
emails is the answer. If he's a contributing researcher, be prepared to take his data down if the relationship
has deteriorated that badly.
Q: Another host is advertising their business on their site. Is that right?
A: No it isn't - it's a conflict of interest. Email Kim and let me know please. I'll take it from there.
Q: I want to provide research services for a fee. Can I?
A: We can't tell you what to do with your private life. Don't advertise on your websites with us and don't link
to any website that advertises for your business. It's a conflict of interest. If we find out about your business
and feel that you are selling more than you are transcribing, you may be asked to leave our project to make
way for a host interested in providing free data.
We don't have banners or pop-up ads. We'd prefer to keep it that way please..... There's no reason to link to ancestry.com
or any other huge commerical "pay-fer" site - they have enough business and enough folks providing them
links, they don't need ours. It's just best to not link to commercial sites if you can help it. Evaluate your links
carefully before providing it since you are essentially giving people the means to leave your site. And no, you
do not have to provide an outside link just because you were asked to. If you do decide to give a link, the other
website should reciprocate with a link to your site.
Q: I sent a host some data for her website and she hasn't put it online yet. What do I do?
A: Try sending it again - possibly it got lost in cyberspace and he/she never received it. If you still don't see
it online (after refreshing/ reloading the page you think it would be on), try emailing them and asking about it.
If after that it's still not online, email Kim. I'll take it from there.
Q: A host won't link to my site. What do I do?
A: Email and ask him/her to. If that fails, email Kim.
Q: How can I add my biography info to the "About Us" webpage?
A: Email Kim
Q: What happens if I stop transcribing data?
A: You'll get a lot of leeway time - life happens, we know that. After a while, we'll write and ask for explanations,
but if you don't want to transcribe data for us anymore, you will be asked to leave the project to make way for
a more motivated host.
Q: I'm going to be offline for a couple of months while working out some "real-life" issues. Will
I lose my county?
A: Email Kim to let me know. I'll keep the site online and in your name. As time passes, I will re-evaluate the
situation. Keep in contact with me, let me know what's going on in your life, and I'll keep it for you short-term.
Q: I want to quit because [I'm tired/health issues/money issues, etc] How do I go about it?
A: Email Kim. The website will revert back to us and data that was submitted by researchers and is online will
stay online. However, you may take down any data that you personally transcribed if you feel you must (though please
re-read our policy on taking data down at http://genealogytrails.com/volunteerinfo.html)-
leave anything a researcher contributed to the group, because they contributed it to the project, not to you personally.
There's *usually* no hard feelings, depending on your reasons for leaving and how you go about it. And if your
situation changes in the future, you are welcome to come back to the group ---- again, depending on your reasons
for leaving and the way you left us. Being honest and upfront is the way to be with us.
HTML HINTS
We assume you have a fairly good working knowledge of how to make a webpage. These are just a few hints to help
you out....
FILE NAMES -
- Make them descriptive (i.e. 1830census.html)
- Don't use characters (i.e. !@#$%^&(+=...) other than letters and numbers. Underscores _ are ok
- Don't put spaces in between the words of a file name
- Wrong way: http://www.genealogytrails.com/ill/1830 jasper county census.html
- Right way: http://www.genealogytrails.com/ill/1830jaspercountycensus.html or http://www.genealogytrails.com/ill/1830_jasper_county_census.html
- Use all lower case when making file names. Our server is VERY sensitive
to case, especially in links. One capital letter where it shouldn't be (or vice versa) and your link WILL NOT WORK.
Your county's name should always start with a lower case letter.
- Make sure your graphics are in the same directory on your computer that your html file is in. That will keep
the urls straight.
More Advanced Stuff:
How to convert an EXCEL table to a gif or jpg:
Uses the "Copy as picture" function within Excel...
Select the graph/chart you wish to convert
While holding the shift key down, select the "Edit" dropdown menu
A new function will appear called "Copy Picture..." Select this.
Choose from the options displayed in the dialog box. "As shown when printed"
Open up a drawing program capable of saving in a ".gif" or ".jpg" format
Paste the picture into the drawing program and save the file!
How to convert a PDF file to a graphic:
You have to copy and paste it into a photo program - in Adobe Reader: click the Snapshot Tool, outline the image
....
Now depending on your photo program:
1a. If it has "From Clipboard" under File (might not show up until you have done the first part): Just
click "From the Clipboard" and the image shows up.
Or
1b. If It doesn't have from the clipboard: In Adobe Reader: under edit click copy. Then in photo program: Under
File: click "New" , put in the
size/pixels and dpi (I usually say 8x10 inches at 400 dpi to make sure I get the whole image), click OK, then under
Edit, click Paste.
2. Do what you need to: Crop, Rotate, Resize, etc., then name and save. If you save this file as a .tiff or .bmp,
you can then use an OCR program to read it and covert it to text.
How to make colored border lines on a table (if your software doesn't let you do this easily)
This is the coding for this particular table - It has a background color of white and a border color
of red that matches the background of this page:
<TABLE BORDER="4" CELLPADDING="2" WIDTH="99%" HEIGHT="692" BGCOLOR="white"
BORDERCOLOR="CD9B9B">
How to make a colored line
this code <HR ALIGN="CENTER" WIDTH="48%" NOSHADE COLOR="#B03060">
will produce this line:
UPLOADING ISSUES
Q: I've never uploaded before. What do I do?
A. See directions below for WS-FTP or FTP Commander.
Q: Are there space limits on how much I can upload?
A: Nope. Thank you for keeping your graphics to a minimum though.... (saves on server space). Think about this
- say you are using a button graphic where the file size of the graphic is 3K. You use 15 of the cute buttons on
one page.... you've just added 15K to your webpage and increased your document's loading time. As good html practice
and for faster loading times, all webpage file sizes should be below 100K.
Q: Are there time limits on when or how long I can upload?
A: Nope.
Q: I've uploaded my documents, but my graphics are not showing up.
A. That's a common problem when just getting started. Make sure to upload all the components on the web page -
this includes your logo, any graphics you used to put the page together (including bullets, "new" signs,
pictures of people/places/things of the county, return buttons, etc.) Basically anything you had to "INSERT"
into your document also needs to be uploaded into your directory on the FTP space.
Q: ...sob.... They're still not showing up.
A: Still a common problem. Check first that your graphic file name and the coding of the file name are the same
case (i.e. both all lower case) Using all capital letters can cause some programs to not read the file. If those
are ok, then the problem is usually because your document and your graphics were not in the same directory on your
computer's hard drive when you inserted the graphics into the document. Hence, your file path in your html coding
is wrong. To prevent this from happening, always copy all the graphics you want to use in making your webpage into
the same directory as the webpage on your hard drive BEFORE you insert it into the document.
To fix it once it has happened, you'll need to do this:
Make sure your graphics are in the same directory as your html document. Open your file in your html editor. Edit
your source code so that the tag says simply: <IMG SRC="NAMEOFGRAPHIC.jpg">
Q: Huh?!!!
A: Here's an example of a graphic that is NOT going to show up because of the wrong file path in the source code:
<BODY BACKGROUND="c:\\DocumentsandSettings/MyPictures/stripesltbkg.gif">
To make the background show up, we would change this code to simply read:
<BODY BACKGROUND="stripesltbkg.gif">
AND we would make sure to SAVE THE FILE! after making the code changes and RE-UPLOAD the html file into the
ftp server space.
If you need more help than this, then you need to take a HTML refresher course. (or email Kim for a one-time only
bail-out)
|
