Hong Kong: 'Asian Jewish Life' - new issue online

When Tracing the Tribe visited Hong Kong last year, we met a wonderful group of people, including US expat Erica Lyons, the publisher of Asian Jewish Life.

Erica just informed me that she is helping to get the story out on the situation in Japan and also working on the memoirs of a fascinating woman.

Read the stories by Erica about a Japanese Jewish family living in Hong Kong here and here. The Brenner family - the focus of these stories - also has a blog called the Hitachi Naka City Earthquake Recovery Blog. It is designed to raise awareness and eventually be a conduit for aid to Mayumi Brenner's hometown.

Asian Jewish Life also has a Facebook page, detailing Asian Jewish happenings, information on Japan's Jewish community and how they are coping with the aftermath of the immense earthquake, and other information.

The current issue of AJL is online with several articles of specific interest to Tracing the Tribe readers and genealogists. Click Asian Jewish Life to see the new issue.

One story is by Amelia Alsop who directs the Hong Kong Heritage Project. On my visit to Hong Kong, I visited the Project office, met Amelia and other staff members and was very impressed with what they are accomplishing.

The Kadoorie Family, Sephardi Jews, emigrated from Baghdad in 1880 to settle in the Far East. The family fortunes were founded by Sir Elly Kadoorie and Sir Ellis Kadoorie, who were pivotal players in the development of business giants such as the Hongkong Shanghai Hotel Co. and China Light and Power. Elly's sons, Lord Lawrence Kadoorie and Sir Horace Kadoorie continued the family businesses and philanthropic pursuits. The family is today headed by Lawrence's son, Sir Michael Kadoorie.


In May 2007, Sir Michael founded the Hong Kong Heritage Project (HKHP). The HKHP is the first of its kind in Hong Kong; a project supported and driven by business with the purpose of preserving community history. The HKHP does this by promoting new avenues of research, enriching Hong Kong's existing archival collection, encouraging young people to participate in the preservation of their community history and capturing unrepresented voices in Hong Kong's historical narrative through the collection of oral history. The HKHP is housed in an archive facility in Kowloon which holds 3,100 Kadoorie related records, as well as 550 filmed oral history interviews.

Read The Lost Records Revealed - the Hong Kong Heritage Project's Jewish Collection.

For a look at modern Kaifeng in China - where an ancient Jewish community once flourished and where its remnants are once again learning about their heritage - read Yair Osherovich's story.

...While I asked myself these questions and searched for proof, I already knew the answers. Like my intention to help for the right reasons, these Jewish descendents had pure intentions too. There were plenty of reinforcements for my belief: the seriousness of Tzuri when he made Kiddush, the holding to the Yom Kippur fast despite how very organized and serious the Chinese are about their timetable for meals, and the communal effort to build the sukkah. It was the first sukkah in the town in 100 years. I see proof in the money that these families spend on Friday night meals and the bustle and scents that Shabbat brings as if it was a neighborhood in Jerusalem. Most of all the determination stands out. I see them thrive for knowledge. They listen carefully and absorb all the Jewish knowledge they can.


This has all reinforced my motivation to return to Kaifeng to help out for a third time. It is hard to stay indifferent to the donations they have collected on their own for the rehabilitation of the Carmel Forest. It is hard to stay indifferent to the warmness they treat every Jew and it is hard to stay indifferent to the pride that belonging to the broader Jewish community gives to them.

Read the rest of this story here.

For a long and excellent article, with beautiful photographs, by Dr. Shalva Weill, detailing Southern India's synagogues and trade, read "In An Ancient Land," click here.

See the new issue's table of contents for more.

Thank you, Erica, for Asian Jewish Life.

FamilyTreeDNA.com: 40% off for only 24 hours!

Have you been sitting on the DNA fence to utilize genetic genealogy because of the cost? Need more family members to test, but found that cost was a factor?

If so, don't wait any longer! Here's your chance to get those tests.

FamilyTreeDNA.com has announced a 24-hour only 40% off sale on their Facebook page in celebration of receiving 5,000 "likes" on the company's fan page.

The offer is for new kits only. See the company's Facebook page for more details.

Joining Facebook or "liking" the page is not necessary to receive the discount.

Discounted tests include:

• Y-DNA37
• mtDNAPlus
• mtDNAFullSequence
• Y-DNA37+mtDNAPlus
• Family Finder
• Family Finder+mtDNAPlus
• FamilyFinder+Y-DNA37
• Comprehensive Genome
• Warrior Gene

The coupon code is 5000FACES. This is only valid for new kits and can't be used on existing kits. Enter the code while ordering at www.familytreedna.com. It expires 24 HOURS from now!

[NOTE: Depending on where you live in the US, the discount will end Thursday morning - February 17 - at 7.40am (West Coast) to 10.40am (East Coast).]

Tick tock...tick tock...tick tock!!!

Facebook: Finding family

Tracing the Tribe remembers when Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers.com encouraged all geneabloggers to join Facebook.

I did and, to my surprise, two sets of Russian cousins living in different European cities found me within the first few days. For one group - in Mainz, Germany - I knew their names but not where they lived and certainly not that they were in Germany.

While we were happily shocked at that time, we weren't the only ones. Facebook is an excellent tool for rooting out relatives used by many genealogists and family history researchers.

The Montreal Gazette's story on "The new face of genealogy," by Danielle Murray, covers the experiences of several Canadian researchers and what they found on Facebook, including the experiences of Murray herself.

Forty years ago, long before genealogy became trendy, my great Uncle Milt put together our family tree. He spent years scouring census reports, pouring over church and military records and ship passenger lists, reading old newspapers and searching through graveyards. He even travelled overseas. When it was done, he presented my grandmother and their siblings with a complete database and chart of the entire family going back some 300 years.

Last year, I received a message on Facebook from a long-lost Murray on my grandfather's side, the only side of my family I never knew. "Are we related?" he asked. Could be, I thought, seeing as he lived in my father's hometown. In the next email, we determined our connection -his dad and my grandfather were brothers.

Jay soon drove to Montreal to see us. Not only did he and my dad share a resemblance, they had the same dry sense of humour. The day passed quickly, and we heard lots of stories. The only thing missing was the rest of the family.

Murray found even more. Within one month she connected with 50 first and second cousins, and by the end of the year, some 178 direct descendants of her paternal grandfather and siblings had been charted. During this summer, the family held  a reunion.

Of course, Facebook research is a bunny slipper activity, Murray explains:

And I know had it not been for Facebook, it just wouldn't have happened. Sure, I could have done it on my own, but the thing is, I wouldn't have. With Facebook, all I did was plug names into a computer. I paid nothing. I never left the house. I barely lifted a finger.

There are other internet family history sites, of course, to help find living relatives.

A Facebook spokesperson is quoted as saying the site doesn't keep statistics on the number of actual and virtual family reunion groups created. Perhaps they should?

The story detailed the experiences of several "Facebook Family Finders" (Murray's term) who have created family pages, discovered relatives in cyberspace and held real-time reunions.

Are you looking for family? Another great site for connecting with relatives is MyHeritage.com. Do try it! While Facebook is a general social networking site, MyHeritage is a genealogy social networking site, raising your targeted search by several levels.

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.

IAJGS 2010: Breakfast with the bloggers

Monday began early with a special social networking breakfast headed by the bloggers.

From left: Thomas MacEntee, Schelly Talalay Dardashti, Lisa Louise Cooke

Lisa of Genealogy Gems Podcast and Genealogy Gems News covered the portability of podcasts via iTunes download - even telling us about the woman who has a waterproof iPod and who listens to the podcasts while doing her laps.

She has so many helpful topics at the site, and she recommends going back and listening to older ones. As listeners learn more, some older topics may provide more information after a second take. Each episode has show notes - like a syllabus.

You can listen to the podcasts via any MP3 player, which may cost from a few dollars to many dollars, or even on a cellphone. Listen while exercising, cooking, commuting, or traveling on a plane trip.

An attendee asked Lisa how one makes money from podcasts, which Lisa terms vehicles of connection. But she offers more, such as only for subscribers' special videos and exclusive podcasts, for $29.95 a year.

At this conference, Lisa is teaching three Google classes (two searching, one Google Earth). Premium membership provides classes, DVDs, many special offerings. She also post affiliate links, such as Amazon and other sources. And she also has a speaking career. There's a wide range of things, which provide information and free initial content.

Lisa said that podcasts are suitable for genealogical societies, family groups and others.

Thomas MacEntee of Chicago cautioned attendees on privacy issues and said that any social networking site that you establish an account with has ramifications.

He discussed Facebook and how it can help diverse genealogy groups. For example, he shared that he will be publicity director for the FGS 2011 in Springfield, Illinois, and the event will have a Facebook page.

His latest endeavor is The Connected Genealogist, where free and for-fee items are available, including a Facebook cheat sheet and other very useful technical resources. He does charge for only e-books and templates.

As far as Facebook, he has six separate pages for his various activities, but are all linked to one Facebook account.

I discussed blogging, and also mentioned a new tool on Tracing the Tribe to help readers with visual problems. By clicking the icon above the logo, you can download a toolbar that can enlarge text, change the font, switch colors and more to make it easier to see, or even have the text read to you.

By the way, all of Tracing the Tribe's posts are available as podcasts!

Names: How many of each?

Names, names. How many of each name are there and how do the respondents identify in regard to their ethnicity or race?

A Facebook blog entry was the focus for a Wall Street Journal article on comparing diversity of its members with the US Census Genealogy Project.

How do Facebook members compare to the Genealogy Project listing the most popular surnames?

Facebook data team researchers Lars Backstrom, Jonathan Chang, Cameron Marlow and Itamar Rosenn wrote that they were interested in finding out more about the composition of race and ethnicity among Facebook users. So they compared Facebook users’ surnames with data from the US Census Bureau's Genealogy Project, which measured the frequency of the most popular 150,000 surnames in the United States along with the race and ethnicity associated with the person who had each one.

The Wall Street Journal story appeared in Digits, its blog on technology news and insights, which referred readers to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Genealogy Project.

That link provides three files. The first is the methodology and definitions. The second: an Excel list of the top 1,000 names; the third: a list of names appearing 100 times or more, for a total of more than 151,000 names.

To read more about what the data scientists at Facebook found, read the links above.

Tracing the Tribe did its own look-see on the third list of names for DARDASHTI and TALALAY, as I certainly didn't expect to see them among the 1,000 most popular surnames.

DARDASHTI ranked 112,365 with a count of 145 individuals.

That was surprising as we have more than 1,000 relatives in Greater Los Angeles with this name. If it were only 145 individuals, family weddings - and even Passover seders - would be much smaller.

The probability of finding the name in every 100,000 people is 0.05; 80.69% identified White, 0% Black, 0% Asian, 17.93% as two races, and data was suppressed for American Indian/Alaska Native and Hispanic.

This is understandable as Persians believe they are Asian (Iran is in Asia), but the Los Angeles School District and other city/federal similar lists put Asian under Caucasian. And there are a few marriages in the family that include other races.

TALALAY did not appear - it is such a rare name anywhere and appeared in no variant spelling of the 35 original name spellings. However, reflecting the name change in 1905 by my immigrant great-grandfather, the adopted surname TOLLIN was in the list and ranked 84.310 with a count of 207 individuals.

While most TALALAY became TOLLIN, so did others named TOLCHINSKY - as I've discovered over the years. Not all TOLLIN are TALALAY. The percentage found in every 100,000 individuals was 0.08%; 94.2% identified white; 3.38% identified black, 0% American Indian/Alaska Native, Data was suppressed for two race and Hispanic.

Have you checked your own names of interest?

Facebook: New privacy settings

The New York Times Bits column always has interesting topics by Brad Stone. Yesterday's was on Facebook's new privacy settings.

Read the complete column here, which advises users to review all their privacy settings and provides links to other stories with additional information. The Facebook.com press release is here.

Tracing the Tribe's experience is below, but found no difference in recommendations from Facebook. Everything was as originally set up.

The main point is that members have new privacy options, and can choose custom settings for each item they post. The Facebook release's major sections cover adding controls for each item, simplified privacy settings, help in choosing settings, expanded privacy education, additional information and media availability.

What's gone: Regional categories where users used to share info with people in their city or region.

What's in: Users can decide to share content (and each component of their profile) with friends, friends of friends or everyone.

If you logged in yesterday (Wednesday, December 9), you saw the transition tool with a message explaining the changes and providing an opportunity for viewers to update settings. There are two options: keep the old settings or accept Facebook's recommendations.

When you share an item (a photo or whatever), click on the lock image to choose who can see it. And even that can be customized, according to Stone.

When Tracing the Tribe checked its settings, it noted that one screen asked for specific individuals who would be prohibited from seeing the item in question. Thus, as Stone wrote, members could decide to show something to everyone but their mother and father, if they wanted this option, entering those individuals' names and emails.

Tracing the Tribe also modified its application settings and has blocked some of those really annoying apps (Farmville, for one - there are others). Some people may have time for these things, but Tracing the Tribe is already stressed from a lot of work.

Stone questions if Facebook is "guiding people toward relaxing their privacy settings." Barry Schnitt of Facebook says the default is based on posts that users create, religion, birthday, and related to their previous privacy settings.

A blog post at ACLU of Northern California indicated that most users will see recommended settings that make information less protected.

The ACLU's Nicole Ozer said that to make settings stronger, the user must click to another page with more detailed privacy settings. And her organization has a petition asking the site to take more steps to increase privacy and create new protections to prevent applications from accessing user details without the users' knowledge.

Another web organization, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, also criticizes the changes, and indicated members could unknowingly send to the world more information than they realized - or really wanted to.

Read both complete articles above for the links.

Facebook: Translation tool for developers

Facebook's new translation tool in 65 languages was the focus of Brad Stone's New York Times' "Bits" column the other day.

In his column, he writes that the previously English-only site introduced a tool in January 2008 that enabled users to translate the site into their native languages. Today, it is in 65 languages with most users outside North America.

As of Thursday, October 1, Facebook made the tool - Translations for Facebook Connect - available to some 15,000 sites and apps using the Connect service.

The translation tool works by asking users to submit possible translations of phrases, and then soliciting their votes on which is the most accurate. So now a country’s tourism Web site, for example, can use the tool to solicit help with a translation, and then present the site to users in their native language when they log in using their Facebook ID. It is free for developers, but Facebook hopes it will increase the use of the Connect Service.

Facebook’s human-powered approach juxtaposes quite sharply with Google’s service, which uses technology to automatically translate Web sites and text — with occasional unintentionally comical results. (The Facebook system, of course, has had to handle a relatively tiny number of phrases.)

According to Facebook's head of platform Ethan Beard, technology doesn’t take into account cultural values or idioms that are hard to translate.

It will be interesting to see how this evolves.

Technology: Facebook revamp

Are you Twitter-tired, Facebook-fatigued? Tracing the Tribe is so busy that we just don't log in as much as think we should. Perhaps this information will help.

The New York Times today writes about how Facebook is revamping itself to look more like Twitter.

Unlike Facebook, where friends mutually agree to let one another into their online lives, Twitter lets people share updates and links with anyone who cares to read them.

That has turned Twitter into a tool for people to peer into the collective mind and see what people are talking about in real time. It is also a tool for businesses to reach customers and monitor what their customers are saying about them.

Facebook seems to be very interested in those features. Since last fall, when Facebook tried and failed to acquire Twitter, it has been slowly introducing features that mimic Twitter.

Last week, Facebook added two new, Twitter-like features. Users can now “tag” friends or companies that they mention in status updates, and they can use a pared-down version of the site called Facebook Lite that resembles Twitter’s stream of status updates.

While a Facebook spokesperson says they are making changes to reflect the rapid evolution of how people share online information, others think it is Twitter envy and that Facebook is trying to copy Twitter features.

To tag another Facebook member in a status update, users type the @ symbol before the friend’s name. The @ symbol is a convention that Twitter users started. In response, Twitter added a section on its site where people can see any tweets that mention them. The mentions are hyperlinked so others could click on them to see the subject’s profile page.

Facebook calls this “a common Internet mechanism,” and expects Facebookers to use it more for storytelling.

Although we've always tagged friends in Facebook photos, this capability has not been available for status updates. Now, however, tagged people will receive an e-mail, along with a profile page update and their names will be hyperlinked to their pages.

Facebook says it enables users to “to talk about their real-world connections” and to interact more. Additionally, it will help the tagged (people and businesses) to see what others are saying about them.

What does the future hold? According to the article, Twitter will soon be introducing features to help businesses interact with customers. Facebook already offers special commercial pages and the option of buying ads.

According to a restaurant manager quoted in the story, he's happy and says that when the place is mentioned, friends can go to the company's profile page with a single click and the company will get an email alert. He also believes the new feature will bring people to the site because of the tagged alerts.

Facebook Lite is the other new feature. Its target market is Internet users with slow connection speeds or new users who want to learn about core features. The article calls it "essentially a stream of updates, like Twitter." Photos and comments are included (not on Twitter) but gets rid of a lot of current Facebook homepage static.

Previous changes - I think I really need to log in more often! - have included updating homepages to show real time updates from all friends, allowing brands and "names" to send status updates directly to Twitter, and allowing Twitter users to send tweets to Facebook.

Read the complete story at the link above.

NewspaperARCHIVE: Stay tuned!

It is always good news when the big online companies collaborate with researchers, genealogists and other users of their resource databases. Asking for input from users is valuable to the companies as it helps improve features and the experiences - ultimately - for all users.

NewspaperARCHIVE.com has just gotten into the act with its Facebook community, with a project called OurNewspaperARCHIVE. Because Facebook users have experience with social networking communities, the company felt they would be a great place to start.

For now, the company is limiting the beta test to those who are already members of its Facebook page community, so as not to overwhelm the system. It makes sense to Tracing the Tribe: Fix the possible bugs and improve functionality before making a public general release.

If you are already a member of the Facebook group for NewspaperARCHIVE, you can sign up at the new site, look around and test the site. The company is asking for feedback from beta testers, so I hope people will get involved to make the experience ultimately better for everyone. The company really wants to know what works, what doesn't and what enhancements would be appreciated.

Current features include groups, forums, blogs, comments and images. Features to come will include better integration of NewspaperARCHIVE with OurNewspaperARCHIVE, annotated image galleries, timelines, and more connection opportunities.

Stay tuned for more information.

Southern California: Facebook family, July 12

Facebook is a new way to find relatives. The social networking site has provided interesting opportunities for people to connect.

Learn how you can do it also at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of the Conejo Valley and Ventura County (JGSCV) on Sunday, July 12.

The meeting begins at 1.30pm, at Temple Adat Elohim in Thousand Oaks,

Originally launched in 2004 at Harvard, Facebook grew to be the most popular social networking web site in English-speaking countries today with over 200 million users. In minutes, with no prior experience you can find those elusive cousins.

Michael Gallop, JGSCV's former webmaster, will discuss his success on Facebook and demonstrate how to make your family tree come alive and provide invaluable knowledge about your family.

Michael has been working on his genealogy for almost 20 years and has collected a tremendous amount of information about his family. However, it wasn't until he joined Facebook that he actually developed a relationship with many of his relatives and realized how useful those relationships were in helping him uncover information on his relatives he never would have been able to obtain otherwise.

Imagine being able to use your computer to connect with relatives and have them help you with your research just as if you had interviewed them all personally.

Following the presentation, JGSCV Board Members will share their own successes with Facebook.

The meeting is free. For more information, contact JGSCV.

Jamboree: A great story

The Jamboree's "local paper" - The Burbank Leader - ran a nice story on the event, with a spotlight on how researchers are climbing their family trees with online help from blogs, Twitter and Facebook. It also revealed how ancestry hunting has become high-tech.

New technology, like blogs, are one of the new ways people are finding their relatives, said the event's co-chair Paula Hinkel, who was quoted in the story.

“There are lots of different blogs,” she said. “Some let you know about new products and services for genealogy research. Some are blogs about particular family research. For example, one of our bloggers put up all his family on a blog — text and pictures of his family history.”

Some blogs provide a specific type of family research, like Tracing the Tribe, which is just for those of Jewish faith, and then some bloggers create podcasts, she said.

“It all fits in this new world of communication,” she said. “We have a lot of Twitter people at the jamborees. It’s just another way to communicate with each other and find potential cousins. It’s all about finding family members who are trying to trace families.”

Hey, Paula - thanks for the pointer to Tracing the Tribe!

The article also covered the first day's free workshops, including the Kids Family History Camp, which attracted more than 85 young people, ages 8-16. Paula also said that many society members started out as Boy and Girl Scouts doing it for merit badges. She still has her badge.

Paula and I share many ideas on how to bring family history research to our young people, who will be taking over from us in the future. It is a great achievement to get a young interested in this search.

“One of the things that society members worry about is who is going to take over our research when we are gone,” she said. “When we get a kid interested, it’s a win for us.”

It is an excellent article touching on many important points.

Read the complete story at the link above.

Facebook: Picture perfect

Who's that on Facebook? Is it you?

It seems we'll soon be seeing ourselves with this new Friend Finder application, developed by an Israeli startup in Tel Aviv called Face.com. Read their blog here.

Since Facebook was founded, more than 15 billion pictures have been uploaded. Some 60% of all photos on the web are on that site's pages. But it can be hard to find yourself or others in that huge number. Friend Finder claims to change that.

According to TechCrunch:

If there is one feature on Facebook which delivers “social utility” magic even to the most average of users, it’s Photos. In fact the feature is so popular that by Facebook’s own account 1 billion photos are uploaded every month—a staggering number that makes it the largest photo site on the Web.

However, as with all good things, there are also drawbacks, and in this case discovery is high on the list. While Facebook makes it super easy to discover photos in which you were tagged, there is no chance that every one of those billion photos are tagged each month. And that leaves a big opportunity.

It was designed as a low-cost platform to meet two requirements: to be able to tag everyday photos taken at low resolution, bad lighting, with red-eye or sunglasses-obscured faces. It also had to be scalable. Face.com claims to be able to perform facial recognition on all of the one billion photos currently uploaded into Facebook every month using only a few machines.

Photos are not stored, only tagged, and privacy is a concern. The photo is analyzed and dumped, giving Facebook users a tagged photo on his or her page. It will only tag photos within Facebook and within Friend Finder. No one can see the photos unless they are also running it. It also follows users' Facebook privacy settings.

If you are auto-tagged in an image, the application notifies you via a Facebook alert. The user may approve the photo or untag it and hide it from other application users. If you untag your image, it is private - no one will know.

The company, in its first alpha test month, scanned about 400 million photos, identified some 700,000 people and users confirmed the identities of about 150,000 people, according to the company's CEO/co-founder Gil Hirsch, despite the poor quality photos (shadows, red-eye, etc.)

Read the company's blog here and go to the site to read more (see the Press tab).

Twitter & Facebook: Getting fast answers

Randy Seaver's weekly Best of the Genea-Blogs feature at Genea-Musings is a great idea. While most genea-bloggers read hundreds of blog postings plus distill huge numbers of news resources, Randy's weekly listing helps by providing some really interesting posts.

Tracing the Tribe sometimes finds its way onto Randy's list, which is always very nice. (Thank you, Randy!).

In his latest listing, Randy pointed to Dan Lawyer's Taking Genealogy to the Common Person where Dan wrote about using Twitter and Facebook to get fast answers to a genealogy question.

This past Wednesday I was thinking about how much I’d like to find the death certificate for a particular ancestor when the thought struck me, “I’m sure someone out there knows the answer to this question.” The question for me was, how do I find the death certificate for Warren Dodge, who died about 1888 in Barton County, Kansas?

Well I decided to try a little experiment. What if I could throw that question out to a large audience. Would they respond? Would they answer my question? Here’s what happened.

Dan posed his question on Twitter, which automatically also put the tweet on Facebook. This was on May 6, at 11:47am.

The first response came in six minutes (T=Twitter, FB=Facebook) at 11:53amT, 12:04pmT, 12:14pmFB, 12:31pmFB, 12:51pmFB and 4:14pmT.

Wrote Dan,

All responses were accurate and helpful. As a result of the information provided I went to the Barton County genealogical society website and discovered that the county did not have death certificates that early and the state (as my online experts indicated) did not keep death certificates until 1911. I did not waste any more time looking for a death certificate but rather changed my focus to probate records. I called the Barton County records office and asked if they had a probate record for Warren Dodge who died there in the 1880s. Without even putting me on hold, she looked it up confirmed they had it and is sending me a copy of the whole file. Wow! That was a terrific experience.

A great experiment, Dan - thanks for sharing it. Look at Dan's post to see how he worked in the answers from the two sites.

And thank you, Randy, for this special pointer.

Footnote + Facebook: 'I remember'

Footnote.com has just launched "I Remember," a Facebook application.

Footnote has met with many genealogists and family historians over the years, writes marketing director Justin Schroepfer. They've voiced a common problem - trying to get family interested and engaged with family history.

Instead of trying to get everyone to come to Footnote to participate in family history, the site is bringing Footnote to the masses via Facebook. "I Remember" enables people on Facebook to view any existing Footnote Page or create a new page without leaving Facebook, writes Justin.

These pages are used to document the life events and memories of our ancestors or anyone else that had a meaningful impact on our lives: family, friends, classmates, teachers, mentors, religious leaders, or even pets.

Utilizing the Facebook environment, people are now able to more easily share these pages with their friends and family.

Another feature is that any contribution or upload that is made on Facebook is also featured on Footnote.com.

According to the press release, the application is aimed at helping connect Facebook users to share memories of loved ones.

Few events in life generate the emotions and memories as does the passing of a friend, family member or colleague. However, without the appropriate tools and forum to preserve and share these memories, a loved one’s legacy may be lost. Now with I Remember, Facebook users can create a meaningful experience to honor those individuals that had an impact on their lives.

Using I Remember, Facebook users can share stories, upload photos, post comments and add facts about an individual. These facts will automatically generate a timeline of the individual’s life and a map detailing important places and events. Further, shared information will undoubtedly spark more memories. Soon a robust page can be created through the simple efforts of a few people coming together. For an example of an I Remember page, click here.

In addition, contributions using I Remember on Facebook will also be accessible on Footnote.com, a premier history website. From the I Remember pages on Facebook, users can easily tap into the over 53 million historical documents found on Footnote.com to discover additional information about those people they are remembering.

Click here to learn more about I Remember.

Social Networking: New ways to connect

And we thought we only had to contend with networked blogs, applications already available and Twitter-related apps.

We'll have to face many more applications after Facebook announced they were opening up to developers so they could create more programs to tap into it.

The New York Times' Brad Stone wrote an interesting article on this announcement.

TO understand the counterintuitive business wisdom infecting Silicon Valley these days, consider an imaginary corner supermarket, Joe’s Foods.

After establishing his store as a vibrant enterprise and a hive of neighborhood activity, Joe makes a strange decision: he props open the front door and invites everyone to come in, take the merchandise free of charge, and then give it away themselves.

All the extra foot traffic, Joe says, will make Joe’s Foods the social center of the community.

That is roughly comparable to what Facebook, the popular social network, did this past week. In a loud and proud public announcement, it said it didn’t care whether its members visited Facebook.com at all.

Facebook will provide tools to let other companies create programs tailed to a wide range of mobile devices like iPhone, and make it possible to share more information in more ways.

This is similar to what Twitter did - allowing third parties to create programs to help users. Numerous companies are creating new ways to access social networks.

French entrepreneur Loïc Le Meur's start-up faced high costs, so he fired half the staff and developed Seesmic Desktop, which allows Facebook and Twitter users to update without logging into either one. It also allows people to create groups of more than 1,000 followers or in a certain locality. It has been downloaded about 1.5 million times.

Ian Didsworth's TweetDeck is used by more than a million people, blending Facebook and Twitter streams. Amit Kumar's SocialScope is for BlackBerry users to check multiple social networks. Glam Media's network has about 600 lifestyle sites and blogs for women, and is working on Tinker, which allows people to receive moderated or edited update streams for specific events. The company believes it offers advertising attraction.

It seems there will be many more announcements. Things are free for now, but one never knows about the future.

Stone speculates that the new companies might even smother Facebook and Twitter by attracting users and advertisers away from those sites.

There's much more. Read the complete article at the link above.

Facebook: How Haber finds family

Tracing the Tribe just spoke to Jewish genealogist Karen Haber of Israel, whose story appeared in the New York Times' Facebook story the other day.

Karen has been a Tracing the Tribe reader for eight months. Previously, she wasn't interested in genealogy, but is now using Facebook to reunite her far-flung family.

She's been busy today - a story in the Jerusalem Post, another one to be in Yediot Ahranot (Israel's largest daily, which means it may find its way to YnetNews in English), and she was also on the radio. A busy day!

There's more to her fascinating family history, which Tracing the Tribe will soon report. I suggested that she speak about her success at Jewish genealogy society meetings in Israel.

Karen is very happy that her family's story is being told, even though there were some inaccuracies reported.

The Jerusalem Post story ran today.

As the social networking Web site Facebook celebrated its fifth birthday last month, few users were as grateful for its services as Karen Haber, an Israeli and an amateur geneologist who used the site to locate dozens of family members dispersed by the Holocaust.

[One would think that after all my Jerusalem Post genealogy writing, they'd learn to spell the word correctly. Sorry, but this is one of my pet peeves, along with the myth of family names changed by Ellis Island clerks!]

The 34-year-old mother of two grew up thinking she had a very small family, with just one uncle and two step-uncles in addition to her immediate family. Through the Internet alone, Haber has made contact with 60 family members (40 of them through Facebook) - all descendants of the vast and wealthy Bachenheimer dynasty now spread across the globe.

Among the relatives she's discovered is a 92-year-old fifth cousin in Israel whom she now visits once a month; a fifth cousin who is a clinical social worker in Woodstock, New York; a fourth cousin who runs an optometry shop in Zurich; and another fifth cousin who lives in Hong Kong and sells diamonds.

How did she find them? Haber's technique for finding family on Facebook is to send messages to those names that appear on her family tree of 2,500 people. Most responders have been very positive. She's been a Facebook member for a year.

"There was a person I found through Google," she said. "He and his father are big professors in the States and they were very reluctant. But when I contacted other people, like my fifth cousin in South Africa, the first note I received was, 'I love you so much!' Most [replies] are full of love and happiness."

Of course, I was particularly delighted to read about the oral history of the Bachenheimers. Do I see a DNA test in the works? Karen and I discussed this on the phone.

Haber has traced the Bachenheimers back to 1722. One ancestral story she heard from a cousin was that when the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, two brothers named Halevi fled to Germany. A few generations later, the family changed its name to Bachenheimer and Rulf, and by the end of the 19th century, the family members in Germany numbered in the hundreds. A famous relation at this time was Rabbi Isaak Rulf, who was a professor of theology and attended the first Zionist congress in 1897.

The story goes on to discuss the family's fate during the Holocaust and her maternal grandfather Kurt Wertheim's escape from Germany.

Haber's research has unearthed many surprises, the most recent being a Facebook message she received just a few days ago from an 81-year-old cousin she'd been searching for.

"He opened an account on Facebook just to reach me!" she exclaimed.

By the way, her cousin, 81, already had a Facebook account before this connection! This makes for some interesting senior demographics. I wonder how many 80+-somethings have accounts.

The NYT, Facebook and Jewish genealogy

Are you on Facebook? It expects to register its 200 millionth user this week.

In today's New York Times, Brad Stone's Facebook story - in the Technology section - mentions Jewish genealogy. Hooray for us!

It starts out with stats and about the controversial changes to home pages, how it's struggling to keep up with sites like Twitter, other language versions and more. But then it gets into why many use it.

In my own first weeks on Facebook, I discovered two cousins from Russia now living in Germany, a third who had been moving around and was now in Moscow, and an old friend from our Teheran days. More recently, I viewed photos of a Los Angeles family event as a tech-savvy cousin posted them from the event. Our Geneabloggers group is also strong on Facebook.

The NYT story mentions Jewish genealogist Karen Haber of Tel Aviv:

Facebook can also help rebuild families. Karen Haber, a mother of two living outside Tel Aviv, logs onto Facebook each night after she puts the children to bed. She searches for her family’s various surnames, looking for relatives from the once-vast Bachenheimer clan of northern Germany, which fractured during the Holocaust and then dispersed around the globe.

Among the three dozen or so connections she has made on Facebook over the last year are a fifth cousin who is a clinical social worker in Woodstock, N.Y.; a fourth cousin running an eyeglasses store in Zurich; and another fifth cousin, living in Hong Kong selling diamonds. Now she shares memories, photographs and updates with them.

“I was never into genealogy and now suddenly I have this tool that helps me find the descendants of people that my grandparents knew, people who share the same truth I do,” Ms. Haber says. “I’m using Facebook and trying to unite this family.”

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says connecting people in various ways represents "a generational shift in technology."

The site is dealing with disgruntled users who are not happy about recent changes, and the story addresses the challenge of keeping 200 million people happy.

The company says users must learn how to better use privacy settings, to avoid embarrassing moments, such as conflicts between kids vs parents, employees vs bosses. The story reports that only 20% of members use privacy settings.

A social scientist who studies social networks says people spend a lot of time trying to be separate, such as parents and children.

Learn about possible future interactive advertiser tie-ins and probable user rebellion against ads.

Read the complete - and very interesting - story at the link above.