ourFamily•ology, a web-based genealogy program, was launched by Brandy Sacco of Franklin Lakes; the website can be found at Family-Genealogy.com. The Internet is one of the greatest tools for researching genealogy, and it has spawned a niche market with the titan Ancestry.com putting out an IPO priced between $12.50 and $14.50 per share. Family-Genealogy.com is looking to gain its own market share by offering services that fill in gaps by the existing platforms.
This is an opportune time to bring about new features and services as the interest in genealogy is finding support from other Web 2.0 features such as Facebook. The popular social networking site has led to friends finding each other after many years, and also helps keep extended family members more closely connected. Sites such as this, combined with the vast amount of resources available on the web, has also expanded how people view geological research. Traditionally focused on a “single track” approach only concerned with direct ancestors, many people now assume a “village approach” that includes historical notes based on geography – a village, a town, a nation.
Google, in its effort to be the Big Brother of the Internet, offers a variety of useful tools for research. Google News Timeline available through Google Labs, NewsTimeline.GoogleLabs.com. This tool allows researchers to enter a date in history and find corresponding news articles for that day, week or month. It is a powerful way to place individual stories into a larger context, and learn of events that were commonly shared.
Residents of Bergen County are fortunate to live in such proximity to one of America’s greatest monuments to family history, Ellis Island, where so many relations passed through upon entrance to the United States.On the web, EllisIsland.org provides a search capability for people seeking to find records of entrance, and one morsel of information can provide avenues for additional research. It is a great example of how “The Web” is perfectly suited for genealogical research as user find a great inter-connectedness between individual stories.
The Franklin Lakes library offers a wealth of information on local history, and continually seeks resident and non-resident involvement in documenting the borough’s stories. Samantha Cordero McCoy, the library historian, regularly helps library visitors learn about Franklin Lakes history through historical documents and items. She also maintains the FranklinLakesHistorySpot.BlogSpot.com where visitors can learn about, and help add to the knowledge base of, Franklin Lakes history through people, places and things.
Family is a social foundation, society’s basic building block, and the hobby of genealogy allows an opportunity to utilize modern technology to document generations that have come before. With November being National Adoption Month in the United States, it’s interesting to note how a sense of personal history extends beyond bloodlines. History is a shared story, and exploring the story we are a part of can be a rewarding opportunity to develop new emotional and intellectual tools for growth.
A family’s history, and an individual’s history, are all uniquely full of major and minor crises and joys — the ups and downs that make life an exciting ride. Dedicating some time to researching the unique story one is a part of, and attaching it to places and events, helps foster the reality that it is a small world, that there are not many degrees of separation between people. Being able to share these individual stories and histories is good for the soul, for those here today, for those who come tomorrow, and for those that came before.
There are various platforms available on the web for helping to facilitate and organize geneological research, and certainly a new option with new features is worth a free preview. The many online tools now available have made some the better known platforms slightly obsolete, and Family-Genealogy.com is hoping to fill in the gaps for a new generation.