There's a Lesson in Here Somewhere ...

I have never been so glad for a week to be over in my life.

It started out well enough ... I was getting stuff done at home and at work, and even managing to get a little research done while working on my Home Study Course lessons.

Then Wednesday.

I got a call at work from my daughter at about 4:45 p.m.  She was in tears.  She said I needed to come home right away because someone broke into our house.

Great.

So 3 hours and about a half pack of cigarettes later, the police left (after getting fingerprint dust all over the place) and we started the cleanup.  Broken glass, furniture in disarray ... even my mattress was strewn across my room.

You know what surprised me?  I wasn't worried about my research.  I back up my hard drive to Dropbox every month (thanks to Thomas MacEntee's thoughtful reminders), and back up my tree to Dropbox every time I change anything (because RootsMagic gives you that option).

Yes, as I was driving home ... after I convinced myself that my cats were faster than any burglars and were probably hiding somewhere and perfectly fine (they were) ... I was worried that the thieves stole my desktop PC (they didn't) and my laptop (they didn't) and my iPad (they didn't).  Needless to say, these were not very smart thieves.  But not because of any data that would be lost.  

So - everyone preaches about backing up your stuff because you never know when your computer will have a meltdown, but you also never know when your house will be burglarized either.  So chalk that up to another very good reason to do it.

So now, instead of having to replace my computers, I get to go shopping for alarm systems for my house.  And a big dog.  And maybe definitely a gun.

Do we share any ancestors?

Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

Analyze This ...

My 2nd great grandmother, Eliza Bourke Lanctot, was born in Illinois ... or was it Michigan?  Well, she was born on 2 February 1861 ... or was it 1862 ... or 1859 ... or 1860?

Clearly, I have some work to do.

My most pressing research objective for Eliza is to determine where and when she was actually born.  (See my previous post from earlier this year) so I can get her birth certificate.

I didn't have any luck with any of the Catholic Diocese in Illinois, as their records are filed by parish, so I would need to know the parish where they lived.  Great.  Back to square one.  But I DO have those really cool photos from the Douglas County Historical Society - those won't really help me here, but I'm still excited that I have them :)

This little problem was starting to get out of hand.  I had to figure out some way to take all of this information and chop it up into bite-sized bits and maybe shake it up a little.

Enter the Excel Spreadsheet.

I entered every piece of data from every source I currently have into the spreadsheet:

I basically broke my sheet down into these columns under "What I know", which lists all the data contained in the source, and "How I Know It," which gives the source information.  I have another section called "How Reliable Is It?" where I make comments on why the document was created, who created it, who provided the information, and also what information I have assumed or calculated, and if there are any conflicts within the document itself.  I have color-coded the "calculated" dates (blue) and the "assumed" relationships, etc. (yellow) just to make it easier for me when I'm looking at the big picture.  I've listed the source and the date of the source, then sorted them all according to date.

Here is the reliability section:

In preparing this spreadsheet, I realized that I was missing 2 state census records for Eliza.  They may or may not help in answering my question, but it was good to know that I was able to recognize that documents were missing and be able to fill in those blanks.

Okay, I'm going to let my geek flag fly here for a second ... I LOVE EXCEL!  Truly.  Here's why:  When I get ready to sit down and put my brain to work on this problem, I can show/hide columns, I can sort the data however I want, and basically manipulate this spreadsheet any number of ways to see the picture from a different angle.  Hopefully, this will help me determine where I need to look for her birth certificate, or where to look for more documents that may get me closer to an answer.

This is still a work in progress, and I will likely have to add more columns as new documents present themselves containing different data, but the beauty of it is that I can add as many as I want and still be able to focus on whatever data is pertinent to the instant problem, just by hiding what I don't want to see and revealing it again later when I need it (which means I only ever have to enter it once!). 

So maybe this only seems to work with my brain, but on the off chance that someone else out there will be able to use this tool to visualize their work in different ways, I'm happy to share my template.  Just let me know :)

Do we share any ancestors?

Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com

Product Review: Imagelab Slide & Negative Scanner

I love technology.  I love new toys.  Fine ... I'll admit it.  I'm a gadget whore.


This one, I think, will prove quite useful.  I put this little item on my wish list some time ago, and when my mom asked me to send her my Christmas list, I simply copied the link to my Amazon wish list and emailed it to her.  I never thought she would choose this from that list.


The Imagelab Slide & Negative Scanner.  (cue ethereal music)


When I emptied everything out of the box, I was quite impressed.  The scanner is actually smaller than I was expecting.  It weighs a touch over a pound, and it's around 7-1/2 inches tall.  That's completely a guess because at the time I wrote this, I was unable to find my ruler.  The scanner is a little over half as tall as Meresa (my Barbie).  Don't judge.  I know for sure that she is 11 inches tall.  Ergo, the scanner is about 7-1/2 inches tall.

Meresa: Presenter and measuring standard

Instead of simply plugging everything in, turning it on, and figuring out how to use it myself (which I usually do), I decided to read the instruction booklet.  The first page is READ THIS FIRST!!  So ...


The first thing you should know is that you can only use 35mm slides or 35mm negatives.  Scanning other sizes could damage your originals.


The second thing you should know is that you should not get the scanner wet.  No scanning negatives in the bathtub!  You've been warned.


Whew!  Glad I read that part first.


You can use the scanner with the provided AC adapter, or you can use 3 AAA batteries.  I bought a box of 50 AAA batteries and have not one single thing in my house that uses them (I thought they were AA).  Today we're going to use the AAA batteries.


It also takes a standard SD card, or you can use the USB cable to scan directly to your computer.  I used the SD card that I use for my digital camera.  It's an 8 GB card, and the counter on the scanner says I have 8125 images worth of space.


I found some old negatives - I have no idea how old - and I can't tell by looking at them what the photos are, so I suppose it will be a surprise for all of us!  I opened one of the negative trays to place the negatives.  The tray was a little tricky for me to get opened at first, but that is probably user error (or what we call a PICNIC problem -- problem in chair, not in computer).


I got the negatives loaded up and slid the tray into the slot.  The images show up on the LCD screen (approx. 2-1/2 inches square).  I pressed the button that says "negative" on the top to scan the photo to my SD card.

Here is a completely unretouched version of what was on that negative:

That's actually a photo of the quilt that my grandmother made for my (now 21-year-old) daughter when she was very little.  This photo was probably taken around 14 years ago, judging by the background.


I don't own any slides, so I couldn't test out that feature.


Bottom line, the scanner is very easy to use.  It's a little difficult to get the negatives to stay locked on the little nubs that are supposed to hold them in, but I attribute that to the fact that my negatives were slightly curled.  The images are scanned at 9 megapixels, so they aren't too shabby.  The images are saved as .jpg, not .tiff, so if that's a feature you really want, you might want to check out other brands.


Now I just have to find the time to scan all the negatives in that box on the closet shelf ...


Disclaimers: I have not received any compensation from Imagelab, Amazon, Rayovac, my grandmother, or Mattel for this review.  I am not a professional reviewer -- I simply got a new gift and wanted to show people how it works, in case they were toying with the idea of buying one.

A Comedy of Errors (or How Not to Convert Keynote to PowerPoint)

So you have a presentation that you've prepared in Keynote.  But it turns out you don't have Keynote anymore, your computer crashed, or you want to send it to someone who doesn't have Keynote.  What then?


This was the dilemma when Frustrated Sue ... er, I mean SFSuzi (that's her SecondLife name ... used to protect the innocent) asked for my help in converting her Keynote presentation to JPEG files so she could use them during her SecondLife book club presentation next week.  


First problem: Suzi's Keynote was an old version and would not save her presentation as JPEG files.  Not a huge problem, since I have PowerPoint and it will open Keynote files and can save as JPEG ... or so we thought.


Second problem: Suzi was in the midst of packing to go out of town tomorrow and would not return until Sunday.  (This really didn't seem like a problem at the time since it would only take a couple of minutes to convert these files, right?)


Time check: We started at around 5:30 p.m.


First, Suzi tried to email it to me but it was too big (34MB).  Not to worry!  We created a file in Dropbox and went from there.  Suzi originally gave me the first 4 slides, and it - quite literally - took me 2 seconds to convert them to JPEGs and save them in Dropbox for her to retrieve.  Then we realized that her presentation had 8 slides.  She then gave me the entire presentation (43MB).


So I open PowerPoint and try to open the file from Dropbox.  Nothin' doin'.  PowerPoint does not recognize .key extensions.  Hmmm ... what the heck?  It worked a minute ago.


Off to the internet I go, looking for a Keynote to PowerPoint converter.  I found one.  It redirected me to some Blackberry program that seemed like a scam.  Dead end.


No worries ... iPad to the rescue!  I have Dropbox on my iPad, so I'll just open it on there, convert it to PowerPoint, get back on my PC and open it in PowerPoint, and then we'll have JPEGs.  Nope.  Turns out I don't have Keynote on my iPad.  I can order it for $9.99, but the iPad version doesn't convert files anyway, so what's the point?


I know!  GoogleDocs!  Surely that can convert ANYTHING!  Wanna bet?  Only option it gave me was to save it back to my PC as a .key file.


I was starting to get worried that I wouldn't have this presentation converted before Suzi left town.  I was absolutely not going to let this file defeat me!  SUZI MUST HAVE HER SLIDES!


I recalled a post that Dick Eastman made about LibreOffice, an open source suite of programs much like Microsoft Office.  Maybe I can download that and it will open for me in there.  Nope.  It works JUST like Microsoft Office.  It doesn't recognize the .key extension either.  I had been meaning to download it anyway, so at least it wasn't a waste.


All this technology and no one has figured out how to get Keynote files to open in PowerPoint?  Seriously?


Then I grew a brain.


I realized that the first batch of slides Suzi sent had already been converted to .ppt (which is why it was so easy to make the JPEGs).  So I sent her an email and asked her to convert the presentation to .ppt and drop it back in the folder.  She sent me back an email and said "I thought that's what I sent!  I'll fix it immediately!"  By this time, I'm actually LOLing.  This is Suzi's first presentation, and I offered to help (being the seasoned professional that I am ... see my post about that here).  But it has turned into the blind leading the blind.  She dropped the converted file into the folder, and 2 seconds later I had converted the slides to JPEGs and dropped them back in the folder.


Time check:  8:39 p.m.  (Yeah, that's 3 hours).


Moral(s) of the story:
1. Never try to convert files while packing for a trip.
2. Simple tasks become brain teasers after a long day of work.
3. Genealogists do it until they get it right!


... and to answer my original question, "what then?"  Basically, you better make friends with someone who has a Mac or you're screwed.

MagicBoard to the Rescue?

A few days ago, I posted about my 2nd great grandfather, Joseph Zenophile Lanctot, and all the inconsistencies I was finding in my research.  In an effort to try to keep all my thoughts straight, I found and downloaded an iPad app called MagicBoard.  I needed something that would allow me to use photos, documents, scratch notes, draw arrows to stuff, and generally move things around until they made sense - at least in the way that my brain works.  At first look, MagicBoard seemed to fit the bill, so since it was being offered for the low, low price of $1.99 I thought I'd give it a try.


First, let me say that I was pleased by its simplicity.  There are no intrusive menu bars or toolbars.  Five icons on the top bar are all you need: one takes you to the main page where you store all of your boards; a "layer" icon so you can arrange your layers; an "add" icon that allows you to add text, a sketch, an image, or a map; a "settings" icon; and a "send" icon.


I created a board and loaded all my images (8) for Joseph from my Dropbox (I was thankful that I had decided to use Dropbox as the home for my family tree data!) into my "camera roll" on the iPad2.  From there, I was able to place the images on my board.  I was able to resize, move, rotate, and even add a caption (after I figured out how to do it - double-tapping seemed to do the trick).  There were options to add a text note and even maps.  I thought that might come in handy later.  There is an option to work in layers, but I haven't really explored that yet.


One thing I didn't like was that in order to jot my notes down (like I would if I were using a whiteboard) I had to add a sketch item, draw or write what I wanted to say, and then I had to manipulate the item to fit where I intended it to go.  I didn't have the ability to sketch in context with the rest of the board, so it took a few tries before I finally got it like I wanted.


I was able to send a picture of my board to myself via email.  Here it is:

What I liked:
1. I could manipulate my images however I wanted.
2. The size of the workspace.
3. The customization options available (background, etc.) - you can even choose whether to use "tape" or "pins"
4. The simplicity of it.
5. Having a lot of Irish ancestry, I thought the logo was super cute (and appropriate)!


What I didn't like:
1. Sometimes the images got a little stubborn and didn't want to play nicely (when resizing or moving, I ended up moving the entire board - that could have been user error or the app, jury's still out).
2. I can't draw arrows and circle stuff like I want.
3. I couldn't resize the actual board, so I ended up having to scroll from side to side to see all my stuff (which usually ended up with me moving all my images around unintentionally).
4. There was no way to change the default settings, so for each image I added, I had to keep changing the "fill bounds"  setting so the images would only fill the size of the space I gave them.
5. I wish there was a way to change the portrait/landscape orientation of the images.


Technical issues:
1. After I got all those images added and captioned, and got my sketches in the right places, I took the picture, emailed it to myself, and that was the last time I've been able to work on my board.  Now, when I open it, instead of my images, I see this:

2. Even though the app itself is fairly intuitive, I thought there should also be some sort of pop-up tips or something to tell you how to do stuff.  There aren't even instructions on the website (at least none that I was able to find).  I had to go to the forum to find out how to do some of the things the app boasted.


In any case, I posted a message on the forum about the image issue, and got a very prompt reply back from the developer, assuring me that they are aware of the issue and that it will be fixed with the next update (which I hope is soon).  I'll wait for that update and see if it changes my mind about this app.  Right now, it's completely useless to me. 


*I was not compensated in any way for this review. I spent my own money, used my own time, and these opinions are completely my own.

BillionGraves.com - Competition for Find-A-Grave?

Short answer: Doubtful.


Disclaimer: I am a long-time volunteer and user of Find-A-Grave, but I'm all about new technology to aid in genealogical research.  


As I was browsing through my Google Reader this morning, I ran across A.C. Ivory's Mobile Monday post about BillionGraves.com.  I was intrigued!  He gave a very thorough analysis of the iPhone app, and touched a bit on the website.  You can also see related posts from Taneya at Taneya's Genealogy Blog, who brought up all kinds of changes/improvements that she would like to see, and Phillip at Blood and Frogs, who talked about (among other things) the unnecessary duplication of efforts since we already have a gajillion graves on Find-A-Grave.  I thought I would supplement with one of my own, focusing on the website - since there is only an iPhone app, and I don't have an iPhone.

Before I delve into the website, I'd like to comment quickly on something A.C. mentioned.   "One of the main points that sets this new website apart from FindAGrave is the ability to see on a map exactly where in the cemetery the headstone is."  Okay, I get it.  What I don't get is what he mentions later:  "You can't search the database using the app. Search feature for individuals is only available on the website."  Huh??  Kind of makes the entire operation a little self-defeating from the outset.

I get the whole GPSing and geocoding and whatnot.  Unfortunately, all GPS is not created equally:

Either GPS is faulty, or the cemetery is REALLY full.

Now ... to the website.  On first visit, you are asked to register.  So I did.  Here's the home page, or "dashboard":

It is clean, simple, and easy on the eyes.  You are given 3 choices from this screen: (1) download the iPhone app; (2) Start transcribing; and (3) Search for cemeteries or people.

I chose to head straight to "FAQ" down at the bottom.  Under "How Can I Help?" I was told:

At BillionGraves.com, everyone can participate and contribute to this monumental project. No matter your circumstances, you can drive the project forward. If you have an iPhone, download the BillionGraves Camera app from the iTunes store, go to your local cemeteries, and collect headstone photos with the app.

But ... "What if I don't Have an iPhone?"

If you don’t have an iPhone, we still need your help! The images are almost useless—they’re too hard to search, too difficult to access—unless they’re transcribed. Instead of helping us collect photos, you can look at the photos and type in the names and dates recorded on the headstones.

It bothers me that you can ONLY upload photos from an iPhone (or potentially Android).  What about people who don't have either of those?  Are they doomed to only be able to transcribe the photos others have uploaded?  I think BillionGraves is shooting themselves in the foot by doing this - not to mention alienating a large portion of the potential volunteer pool (roughly only 1 in 4 people have a smart phone - and that's including ALL smartphones, not just iPhone and Android).  The photo-taking volunteers won't be able to keep up with the transcribing volunteers!

  

I personally don't ever use my phone to take pictures intended to be uploaded to a website.  I'd much rather use my 16mp camera with 21x zoom.  Turns out it takes way better photos than my 5mp phone camera with 1.75x zoom.  Maybe it's just me.

I honestly found the entire site to be rather clunky.  Let's start with the search feature:

You can search for a cemetery or a specific person.  However, if you get 28 results, but click on the wrong one, there is no way to return to the search results or to modify your search.  Using the back button forces you to perform another search, which is glitchy, to say the least (I had to refresh my page 3 times before it would let me choose a state).

Notice - no "return to results" button

The lists of cemeteries by country, by state and by county are not alphabetized, which is incredibly problematic, in my opinion.

I did take a look at a couple of the listings in Alpine Cemetery.  It is beautiful in its simplicity, and I like the fact that no single person "owns" a listing.  

I also took a moment to look at the "transcribe" option.  There are 32 photos that need to be transcribed, and they are obviously the "problem" photos.  Seriously ... there's a close-up photo of what looks like someone's car seat upholstery. 

I'm guessing most of the photos left to transcribe are the result of the inability to post more than one photo per person, because there are some that are obviously additional photos (backsides of headstones, different angles, etc.).  I certainly hope they remedy that issue soon (and have some sort of admin periodically checking the photos that are added).It's just sad that there is no way to add any information other than name, birth date, and death date.  There's not a place for an actual transcription of the headstone.  You can't even link parents and children or spouses.

One thing that did make my eyes bug out just a little was when Phillip mentioned in his post that as of June 1, the app will actually COST people to download.  $1.99 each!  So ... not only do we want you to volunteer, but we're going to charge you to do it!?  Sounds like a great plan.  (I know it's not a huge amount of money, but it's the principle).

I think I'll be sticking with Find-A-Grave, thanks.


================================


Incidentally, as I was typing this blog post, I received an email from BillionGraves asking me to reset my password.

The link took me to this screen:

Now I don't know if I'm being hacked or if this is a genuine request to reset my password.  I know I didn't ask for my password to be reset.  If anyone else has gotten this email, please let me know if it's safe to do.  In the meantime, I'll just leave it in my inbox.