Florida: Create a 30-minute ShtetLink, June 28

Learn how to create, set up and organize - in only 30 minutes - an online site for the town where your ancestor lived at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Orlando (Florida), on Tuesday, June 28.

Speaker Marlis Humphry, Ukraine SIG Project Coordinator, and a JGSGO member, will speak at the Congregation of Reform Judaism in Orlando. The program starts at 2pm.  

She will use the congregation's online connections and website access to demonstrate how to develop elegant and professional web pages honoring ancestral towns. It is no longer necessary to know html to do that, if you can drag-and-drop and copy-and -paste.

JewishGen hosts websites that commemorate any town where Jews lived. and which can be created by anyone interested.  

Learn how to create one, if it doesn't already exist, in 30 minutes. She will demonstrate interactive examples and discuss tools, tips, guidelines and resources and create a site.

Humphrey is a foremost expert on next generation family history publishing. She has applied - to the genealogy world - more than 20 years experience in  communications, technology, marketing and strategic planning.

She is the Ukraine SIG project coordinator. Ancestor Road Show consultant at the Indian River County Library Genealogy Department and a member of the NGS, APG, FGS, JGSGO, IRGS and LitvakSIG.

She has discovered the towns of all her great-grandparents, contacted cousins in more than a 12 states, and found two great-aunts, ages 89 and 98.

Sounds like a great program! If you'll be visiting Orlando's many tourist attractions at this time - and get a bit tired of cartoon characters - this might be a good way to spend a very useful few hours.

Florida: Internet goldmines for genealogists, Nov. 10

Gerald Naditch will present “Internet Goldmines for Genealogists” at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County on Wednesday, November 10.

The day begins with the Poland Special Interest Group from 11.30am–12.15 pm, a brick wall session at 12.30pm and the main program at 1pm, at the South County Civic Center, 16700 Jog Road, Delray Beach.

The presentation will review networking sites specifically directed to researchers of genealogy—blogs, e-zines, digests, forums, newsletters and more.

Some focus on helpful articles such as "How to Publish the Results of Your Genealogical Research" or "How to Make Proper Citations in Your Genealogy Program."

Others are in the form of a blog, which might be described as a stream of consciousness from a knowledgeable genealogist, often with comments from the general public.

Many are daily digests where researchers can exchange information, and websites such as Cyndi's List, a massive categorized and cross-referenced index to genealogical resources on the internet.

A computer expert, Naditch is the JGSPBC webmaster and vice-president of the Boca Raton Computer Society. He lectures frequently on topics of genealogical and computer interest.

Fee: JGSPBC members, free; others, $5.

The society is celebrating its 20th year. For more information, click here.

Israel: 21st-century cemetery technology

If you've ever visited an Israeli cemetery, be prepared for an experience of a different kind.

Graves are crowded with barely a semblance of space to put down a foot between or around the headstones. At a recent burial outside of Tel Aviv, elderly and mobility-challenged relatives and friends could not reach the grave site.

Will they ever find that grave site again? I don't think I could.

However, help is on the way!

The Chevra Kadisha, Israel's burial society with branches in each town and city, is now embracing 21st century technology.

One new project - still in the idea stage - in the Greater Tel Aviv area is a Facebook-type "Genealogy Tree."

When the project is implemented, says the society, nearly each of the nearly 500,000 people buried in the area will have a computerized family tree, providing information about the deceased, his or her relatives, a family tree, a profile picture, and where news and video clips could be posted. The system will also suggest whom to add as relatives.

[CAVEAT: The last sounds like a great idea for those with uncommon names, but Tracing the Tribe would hate to try to decide which of several thousand Avraham Cohens would be the right one to add to a certain tree.]

YNetNews carried the story (English) about how the organization is upgrading its services via technology to help those looking for a relative or friend's resting place more easily.

"In the last couple of months we have developed an SMS grave-locator system," Yossi Zrock, head of Chevra Kadisha IT Services, told Yedioth Ahronoth.

"If, for example, you've arrived at a cemetery and you don't know where the gravestone is, text the name of the deceased to *4664 and directions will be sent to you within seconds."

Chevra Kadisha, he added, is currently developing a GPS grave-locater system for mobile phones. "Such technologies are required for the bigger cemeteries, like the one in Holon, which has over 220,000 graves. People can get lost."

Visitors will be able to rent a PDA - the system might also work on personal smartphones - for NIS 20 (about $5.30), which will lead them to the gravestone, view photos of the deceased, read about his or her life and access appropriate prayers. Future plans include subscribing to grave maintenance and other services via the PDA.

The Tel Aviv society recently launched a website (also in English) which allows families to host commemoration pages, a reminder system for death anniversaries a week prior to the date. The website is not accessible on holidays or Shabbat. Tracing the Tribe is not sure which of the new services will be available in English or only in Hebrew.

Information stations in cemeteries will provide commemoration page details, according to Chevra Kadisha Tel Aviv director Rabbi Avraham Manlah. The pilot project in the Holon Cemetery allows visitors to light a cyber-candle for the dead, or place a cyber-stone or wreath on the grave, noted on the commemoration page.

The society will also offer live Internet feeds of funeral services. According to the article, many Israeli cemeteries already have cameras, allowing those unable to attend a service in person to view it online. Fees to broadcast a funeral are about $53-80, with a CD available for $13.

Read the complete story at the link above.

Orlando FL: Collect, save, organize memories, Sept. 28

"How to collect, save and organize your precious memories," with Tom Hirsch, is the next program of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Orlando on Tuesday, September 28.

The program begins at 1pm; the meeting is free and open to the public, in the Goldman Social Hall, Congregation of Reform Judaism, Orland.

JCSCO member Tom Hirsch will sponsor an "on-line" demo:

-- To demonstrate some websites, bookmarking, and organizing the websites in your web browser; organizing, and saving files, and backing up those files.

-- Provide information on doing serious research.

-- Demonstrate digitally photographing items to include in family history, and photostitching to combine photos into a single photo or record.

-- Available Freeware

For more information, click here.

Jerusalem Post: Tracing the Tribe, other gen resources mentioned

David Shamah, who writes on Internet and technology for the Jerusalem Post (print/online), published a roots column today listing various Jewish and general genealogy resources.

"Hi-Tech 101: At the roots of it all" noted that "If you’ve thought about the idea of putting together a family tree, the Internet can be a great friend."

Sources mentioned for tips, information and how to peel away the layers of the past included:

-- Google's cache, Google Earth and Google News
-- Genealogy Gems podcast and the regular site.
-- Cyndi's List
-- Tracing the Tribe (happy dance!)
-- Roots TV's Jewish Roots channel
-- Yad Vashem
-- JewishGen
-- Ellis Island
-- Tribal Pages

In my opinion, there were two major omissions: SephardicGen.com and MyHeritage.com.

Shamah noted links to a page of common genealogical research mistakes at ShoestringGenealogy. A link (broken) was given to a page that I hope refutes the myth that anyone's name was changed at Ellis Island - if we only had a penny for each time this myth has been perpetuated by people who should know better.
 
Read the complete article at the link above.

AP Styebook: 'Web site' is now 'website'

Language changes are always interesting, and the AP Stylebook (print/online) has announced two changes to become the rule on May 15.

Finally, we can now write "website" instead of "Web site," according to the copy editor's bible:

Tracing the Tribe has been doing this for a long time. Now I don't need to feel so guilty about it.

However, Internet remains cap-I, Web remains cap-W, and e-mail still has a hyphen, according to recent AP Online questions.

Another change, also adopted long ago by Tracing the Tribe to prevent confusion among international readers - is to spell out the names of US states and also to write Canada instead of the province after major cities. This is the AP announcement:

AP CHANGING STYLE ON STATE ABBREVIATIONS

The Associated Press is changing its style on state abbreviations and Canadian cities to create a consistent and universal style for international and domestic use. Starting May 15, the proper style will be to spell out the names of U.S. states in all stories and datelines where a city is followed by a state name. SACRAMENTO, Calif., for example, will become SACRAMENTO, California. We also will drop the practice of including names of Canadian provinces in datelines. We will instead use Canada. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, for example, will become VANCOUVER, Canada.

Changes become the rule on May 15, for those who do not already follow the new style.

Now, if there were only one official spelling for Chanukah-Hannuka-Hanukah-Channuka, etc.

Maybe that will come next.

Resources Online: Love comics?

Nothing like a cold rainy day to encourage a blogger to stay home and go through email.

Tracing the Tribe clicked on ResearchBuzz today and learned about a new collection of digitized comics from various sources.

Some include famous cartoon characters used for public service announcements. The cartoon at left is from Security is an Eye Patch, featuring Charlie Brown and his sister Sally. The booklet on amblyopia ("lazy eye") was published by the US Department of Health.

Some comics are in Spanish, most are in English. Other cartoon characters are also featured, such as L'il Abner and Dennis the Menace. Enjoy the 183 comics, which can be downloaded as PDFs. Loading can be slow, so be patient.

How does Tracing the Tribe find some of these interesting items? Resources, resources, resources is the name of the game.

One very useful site is ResearchBuzz, which offers all sorts of interesting items from many diverse sites, all in a convenient email alert.

The site covers the world of search engines, databases, and other online information collections. Recent posts have covered the Library of Congress, Twitter, Worldcat and much more.

In fact, ResearchBuzz learned about the digitized comics from another site called ResourceShelf, which provides updates on resources of interest to information professionals, educators and journalists.

Librarians and researchers share the results of their web searches for resources and information. Among the quirky ones was the comics site above. There's also a weekly newsletter.

Readers may subscribe to both resources.

Facebook, Twitter: Viruses galore

Viruses on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are sending out humiliating messages to friends and followers.

The New York Times story - "Viruses That Leave Victims Red in the Facebook" - by Brad Stone covers users whose accounts are hijacked when they click on what seem to be inocuous links.

Malicious programs are rampaging through Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, spreading themselves by taking over people’s accounts and sending out messages to all of their friends and followers. The result is that people are inadvertently telling their co-workers and loved ones how to raise their I.Q.’s or make money instantly, or urging them to watch an awesome new video in which they star.

Matt Marquess's Twitter account was hacked, sending followers messages offering a Victoria's Secret gift card. He wasn't aware of it until someone asked him about it. When he logged in, he saw the messages had been going out for five days.

The story covers the humiliation following these attacks. The hackers hope to get referral fees for directing unsuspecting members to disreputable sites.

It seems the perfect scam as so many millions of people are connected and just waiting for them.

How does it happen? Victims lose control of their followers after clicking a link "sent" by a friend (who may have already been hacked and doesn't know it yet). DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK SENT, EVEN BY A FRIEND.

Hackers look for simple passwords. Marquess says that at the time his password was "abc123." Oy vey, says Tracing the Tribe, which recently revamped passwords.

Hacked victims then send out Tweets of shame and apology to their followers.

There are a number of such dangerous links. One is "Are you in this picture?" If you click on it, your account is no longer under your control.

In the old days, the virus would send a message to your email address book, but anti-virus software thankfully stopped most of that stuff. The new scams cannot be stopped with anti-virus software, according to the story, as "they are not self-contained programs."

The story also says that in the past, someone who caught a virus, took care of it quietly. Today, everyone in the world - or at least your followers and friends - knows instantaneously and the person hacked feels embarassed and silly.

The new question is "who can you trust?" We believe the messages we get from friends are okay, but they aren't, because our friends may have already been hacked.

According to the story, "some 21% of Web users report they've been a target of malicious programs on social networks."

Kaspersky Labs, a Russian security firm, says that on some days, one in 500 links on Twitter point to bad sites that can infect an inadequately protected computer with typical viruses that jam hard drives. Kaspersky says many more links are purely spam, frequently leading to dating sites that pay referral fees for traffic.

An Israeli computer developer - see? it isn't just us ordinary people - clicked on something and an image appeared on his Facebook profile and was sent to the news feed of 350 friends.

Tracing the Tribe saw one a few days ago - and deleted it without opening - with the line “Hi, is this you? LOL.” The story detailed a computer expert caught by this one.

Bottom line: Be careful ... very careful! And read the complete story at the link above.

Technology: Breeding isolation or interaction?

For several years, cyberspace has been full of articles indicating that technology makes us into social hermits sitting at home in pajamas and losing contact with the outside world, and that the cause is the Internet and cellphones.

Tracing the Tribe has seen cartoons of people physically sitting around a table and communicating via texting on their cellphones, instead of audibly talking to each other.

The New York Times technology column "Bits" has a story by Stefanie Olsen on a new study that shows just the opposite.

Writes Olsen:

Hundreds of daily updates come from friends on Facebook and Twitter, but do people actually feel closer to each other?

It turns out the size of the average American’s social circle is smaller today than 20 years ago, as measured by the number of self-reported confidants in a person’s life. Yet contrary to popular opinion, use of cellphones and the Internet is not to blame, according to a new study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

The study interviewed via phone 2,512 adults living in the continental US in July and August 2008 and discovered:

Those who regularly use digital technologies are more social than the average American.

They are more likely to visit parks and cafes and volunteer for local organizations.

Cellphone users' circle of close friends is 12 percent bigger than for nonusers.

Those who share online photos or instant messages have social circles 9 percent larger than nonusers.

Americans’ social networks are becoming less diverse (fewer people from different backgrounds).

Social circles of cellphone and and instant-message users were more diverse than nonusers.

Face-to-face communication remained the preferred method.

On average, people see loved ones in person 210 days/year, and were in touch via cellphone 195 days/year.

Those who use social networks are 30% less likely to know their neighbors and 26% less likely to provide them companionship.

From the report itself, I pulled these stats:

Mobile phone use replaced landline phones as the most frequent form of communication – 195 days per year.

Text messaging tied the landline phone as the third most popular contact method between close ties – 125 days/year.

71% of all social networking service members have at least one member of their core network as a “friend” on a social network.

Cellphone users, frequent Internet users at work and bloggers are more likely to belong to a local voluntary group, such as a neighborhood association, sports league, youth group, church or social club.

Bloggers are 61% more likely to visit a public park than Internet users who do not maintain a blog, or about 2.3 times more likely than non-Internet users.

I love that last one. I wish I had more time to go to the park! Maybe their parks have Wi-Fi? Mine doesn't.

The questions asked (see the 97 questions here and the results for each) were supposed to get at the relationship between social isolation in America and use of digital technologies. The study also wanted to change earlier research suggesting that technology caused people to become socially disconnected.

The 2006 study indicated that people saying they had no one to confide in had almost tripled from 1985-2004, but the new study showed that only 6 percent of the American population felt that way, not a significant change over the past 25 years.

Read the complete story at the NYT link above, as well as the complete study at that link.

Sacramento: Internet Genealogy, Sept. 14

Readers in and near Sacramento will enjoy an Internet genealogy program at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Sacramento (JGSS), on Monday, September 14.

Speaker Jerry Unruh will present "Using the Internet for Genealogy," at 7pm, at the Albert Einstein Residence Center, 1935 Wright St., Sacramento.

A longtime member of the Placer County Genealogical Society, Unruh will demonstrate how you can effectively search for ancestors on the Internet. Although the Web contains a vast and growing body of information, not all of it is about our ancestors.

He will show what you can do to find the information you know must be there, and share his own procedures and techniques.

A Loomis, CA resident, he's been researching his family for more than 25 years. Early on, he wrote his own genealogy program when the few available programs didn't meet his needs. Eventually, he switched to Family Tree Maker to more easily exchange data with family members.

He's been a member of the Placer County Genealogical Society for 20 years, and served as president for three years. Currently, he is the society's webmaster, newsletter editor and has been supporting its Family Tree Maker User Group for several years.

For more details, future programs or other information about the JGS of Sacramento, visit its website.