Genealogy Reviews Online

At Last - Another Genealogy Scandal

After my morning workout, I sat down to my computer and began reading my favorite blogs.  I really don't have much time during the week to do this kind of reading, so I really look forward to my Saturday morning quiet time.  Now I was aware of Genealogy Wise, and even wrote a short post about it, but only spent enough time there to accept the few friends requests I've received and to check out how many people had joined the site.  Imagine my surprise when I read Craig Manson's post this morning and discovered there was an honest-to-God, juicy, and controversy filled genealogy scandal...and I missed the whole thing! 

Just the other day I was thinking about writing a post about the lack of scandals in the genealogy world that we used to have.  When I first started blogging in October 2006, I came on board at the tail end of what appeared to be a very robust "discussion" about just what a "professional genealogist" was.  There were harsh words,hurt feelings, and I don't know if anything was ever resolved.  I missed the main part of the conflict, but it sure sounded exciting and was sorry didn't get to see the good stuff in near real time.

Things were quiet for a time, and then Ancestry.com broke the boredom when its Internet Biographical Collection (IBC) came on the scene.  There were accusations that Ancestry was hijacking content without permission and the genealogy blogosphere responded with venom like never before.  Randy Seaver wrote a post providing a round up of blog posts on the issue.  Little did Ancestry know the pain it was going to bring on itself when it quietly released the IBC.  I think, as a result of this scandal, Ancestry all of a sudden realized that it's probably wise to communicate regularly with the genealogy blogging community.  Craig also wrote a series of articles on the legal issues involved in the scandal.

This current Genealogy Wise scandal seemed to have almost everything you want in a scandal - money, censorship, talk of porn (i don't know how this came in), and finally an apology.  Almost everything we really want to see in a scandal...and I'm sorry I missed the whole dang thing...it sounded like great fun. 

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GenealogyWise - Here We Go Again

The other day I received an email from Familylink.com about this new service called GenealogyWise.  Inside the email it basically said they are writing to me as an "influential" (hahaha) member of the genealogy community and they want to hire 10 people to register for and add content to their new genealogy social networking site.  It further said to let them know if I was interested.  I replied and said of course I'm interested - who would turn down a few bucks in times like these?  Then I waited...and waited...and waited...and I'm still waiting.  They must have found people who were just a wee bit more influential than I was.  I guess I'm just gonna have to register and play with GenealogyWise for free.

I registered yesterday with just a minimum amount of info in my profile and before I knew it there were 11 friends requests in my email box.  I thought this would be like Facebook where one day I had 2 friends, then a few days later (after the great genealogy migration began) I had close to 100, but I think I've plateaued - who can really handle more than 11 friends anyway? 

My first thought when I heard about GenealogyWise was "on no...not another one," but after signing up, and exploring a little, I now think it's a pretty cool interface.  I like how it's organized and think it's got all the elements a genealogy themed social networking site needs.  I know some are saying GenealogyWise could make the Facebook genealogy community less vibrant by drawing people away, but I think most will just participate in both.  One thing I don't like is the "Genealogy Search" link at the top of the page taking you to World Vital Records.  Unless WVR has drastically changed since I let my membership expire a few months back, clicking on this link is a wasted effort.

While I do like the look and feel of GenealogyWise, my big beef with it (and with Facebook) is there would be too much work involved.  There are a number of people who put a lot of effort into the genealogy community on Facebook, there own blog(s), other genealogy sites, and now GenealogyWise.  I really don't know how people do it because I can't keep up with all of the activities.  I haven't posted much for the last 3 or 4 months and one reason is sensory overload.  There are just too many online activities (and normal life activities) distracting me from my own ancestor hunting, and from posting regularly on my blog.  Guess I'm just not a good multi-tasker (actually my basic laziness is the answer, but we won't talk about that).

Familylink was probably wise (no pun intended) not hiring me to do whatever it was they wanted those 10 influnential genealogy types to do because my heart's really not in it.  I expect I will visit GenealogyWise occasionally to see what's happening (as I do on Facebook), but I just don't see myself putting much effort into adding content to the site.  I do wonder if I will get more than 11 friends...it seems like others are getting hundreds of friends, and I only have 11...I'm really a very friendly guy.

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News Flash: Ancestry.com Changes Name to Ancestry.com

(I started this post earlier today and accidentally published it before I finished it...my blogging skills are a little rusty so please forgive me if you've read the partial post and thought "huh?"  Although this one is similar, it's completely different...more or less)

Strange enough, but I'm actually ahead of the genealogy curve on this Ancestry.com name change thing - I've never called it anything else.  It's possible I mentioned The Generations Network (TGN) a few times, but I never liked that name because it just didn't sound right...Neither did MyFamily.com.  I never created a TGN blog category and when writing about the corporate entity it was always Ancestry.com.  I'm not out in front on many genealogy things, but on this one I was way ahead of everyone - in fact I think I was ahead of the company itself.  I always thought the natural name was Ancestry.com, but who am I?

It seems like only yesterday when the change to TGN announcement came out discussing their "powerful mission to connect families," and reflected on the new name as a better brand and description of their many internet properties. (When I started this post I linked to the original press release of a few years ago, but they've since taken it down)  The new press release states what I thought was obvious a few years ago...Ancestry.com is a great brand name.

So as I'm delusionally relishing the fact I've always been right on this point, I have to mention I'm still surviving quite nicely without an Ancestry.com subscription.

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