A few weeks ago we discussed the genealogy research goal of preserving your genealogy research for posterity. Apart from writing a book and donating a copy to a local library, posting your family history online is probably the best way to ensure that all your hard work can be enjoyed by relatives and used by other researchers. You have a few options with web publishing:
(1) Use Family Tree Web Sites
You may want to contribute your genealogy data to a site that specializes in collecting trees and making them searchable. It really is the easiest way to publish your family history on the Web. To begin, you'll have to register to post. Each site has varying degrees of protection for your data and may also limit the amount of information that you can post about your family (i.e., you may not be able to add anecdotes and photos). Still, the vital information (births, marriages, deaths) you've collected will appear on the Internet for others to find. Examples of web pages that you can use include:
Ancestry.com
Archives.com
Geni.com
Rootsweb.com
The sites allow you to decide which names or other information appear on your tree. Be cautious of publishing information about living individuals (remember our discussion about Internet Privacy) - the word "Living" is better than the actual name of a person. It might even be better to completely omit some individuals - be careful in this area so you don't anger your relatives. After you've added names and other identifying information to your tree, you'll want to add your source information (if possible). This is a great thing to do, since it shows you have seriously examined the details of your family history and found documentation to support your findings. If you have doubts about something, make sure you add a note about them so other people won't just assume uncertain data are facts. With most sites, you can continue to update the information. The end result of all this effort is that these types of online family trees can be searched by other people. This means (hopefully) that you may one day be contacted by another genealogy researcher!
(2) Create your own Site
If you have a lot of information to post beyond simply names and birth, death and marriage dates, you may want to create your own web site. You don't have to be a geek to do this! Almost all commercially available family tree software has the capability to create the web page - including all art work, photo formatting and text organization. As someone who creates web pages for fun and had to learn several different computer languages, I highly recommend that you go this route. Examples of software programs to use include:
Brother's Keeper
Family Tree Maker
Legacy
Lineage
After you've bought the software, you'll need to follow the directions to create a web site. Some of the programs come with free web space (often for a limited time) and you just need to upload your pages to the server. In other cases, however, you will need to buy a domain name and utilize a web-hosting service. I've been using Blue Host since 2005 and I like their product. The best thing about having your own pages is that you can control every bit of the formatting. It really provides the most freedom you could ever have to create a lasting monument to your family - even more than a book, which may require several editions to "get it right."
Always remember what we talked about when you share data on the web: once it is out of your hands, you can't control where it goes. If you can live with the knowledge that some website in Kazakhstan has hijacked your data and posted it somewhere else on the web, you'll be in business. Happy hunting!
Posting tress to websites can be disastrous unless you have personally verified all the info and can substantiate your info by sources and hard copy. If in doubt, my philosophy is don't post it! If something in the tree turns out to be in error, the info may have spread a hundred fold by then..too late to correct! I'm speaking from doing genealogy since 1976.
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