StudentsOfDescent

Map My Family Tree

In all fairness to the makers of "Map My Family Tree", Progeny, I have tried to assess, without having purchased or used the product, whether or not it might be a good solution to integrating your family history with Google Earth.

I have re-visited Dick Eastman's post on the subject, specifically, some of the comments that indicated a negative light on this software. My first impression is that they do have a very dedicated support staff, and a sincere desire to resolve issues that are presented.

After reviewing ALL of the posts in their support forum, some common issues arise as well as a common satisfaction...

Family Tree Legends....where are you?

I've been a long time, devoted, and happy user of Family Tree Legends (FTL) from Pearl Street Software. This post is not about what it can do, but about attempting to ansewer its future. The owner of this product, "Cliff Shaw", has perhaps moved its HQ to MD. This is what I found out at the Colorado's Sect. of States web site by doing a record search.

I also found out at Dick Eastman's site that it went up for sale last March. As far as I know it's still up for sale. I used to get automatic software updates almost monthly, haven't seen any since about then. Anyway, after some digging I found that Clif Shaw has formed another company, which is not a registered company in Colorado state...but shows its address of record their. His new venture is called "ProtectMyPhotos.com". Its almost needless to say that support for FTL has gone down hill, just go read some of the recent forum entries or Google it.

Its too bad, if I had the backing I would buy it in a snap, its the best I have ever used. Perhaps, if luck is with those that do use it, it will be purchased by someone. I wonder...how you might assess how much its worth? hmmmm....anyone?

Mapping Your Ancestors

Has anyone seen this; MapYourAncestors.com? It has to be the makings of a possible alternative to what I want to see in Google Earth. It will import data from Ancestry.com or Family Search.org. Now the source of this data is somewhat hazy, but if I am not mistaken it will take all the Surnames you searched on and Place them on Google Maps. Well, this may be its biggest shortcoming as there is no way to filter out what you don't want at the beginning. They need an advance search to do this. What they really need to be able to do is to allow you to upload your own Gedcom file, like GeoGed.com lets you do (see my post on this).

Location, location, location...Earth

You've heard the saying in Real Estate; "Location...location..location". Well, since I posted about the GeoGed.com site, I'm bursting at the seems with alternatives. First, there is PhpGedView, which is an Open Source application. I found out about PhpGedView via my site statistics, which showed I had a visitor that originated from a SourceForge.net forum. Oddly, someone posted the TrackBack link for my GeoGed.com posting. It was odd in that its just a link, no comment or anything. This is what exposed me to PhpGedView. Basically, PhpGedView is or can be a collaborative, fully Internet/Web based Genealogy program that can be edited anywhere there is a Internet connection. There is supposed to be a way to display your ancestors in Google Maps with this; subject for a future post.

PicTierra and Picasa

This has to be the sweetest integration of any two outstanding programs on the Planet (Google Earth). To start, because I am always looking for a deeper meaning in things. I think I have figured out where Picasa got is name. If you don't know Picasa its basically software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. I use it all the time to enhance photos and as a library of where they are on my computer. That being said here is what I came up with:

First of all "Pic" is an abbreviated way of say "picture". Whereas, "casa", in this case, probably was meant to be "house" or "Picture House". To stretch this a bit further, and have it lead into my post I could change it slightly by saying PicTierra (Pic Tierra= earth).

How does this apply to Genealogy and Google Earth...please allow me to elaborate...

"Plotting" or Mapping Cemetaries

A while back I read this post on GenealogyBlog.com about Goldbug's "SiteFinder online edition". If your not familiar with Goldbug's product line, its well worth the trip. Basically, they are the producers of Animap, and now have a free web-based version of The Gold Bug's SiteFinder U.S. place name database. This lets you search for towns, schools, courthouses, etc., and plot them onto Google Maps. The focus of this post is what it can do with Cemeteries and Google Earth...

GeoGed.com Revisited

Since, I wrote my last post on "Out Of The Earth Comes Gedcom" I received a response from GeoGed.com about this post. They mentioned that they are moving as quickly as possible to include US locations, which is great news!

Johann, of GeoGed.com, wants to collaborate about suggestions from my previous post/critique. This is also good news, and I am honored to be able to work with him on this. To make this collaboration as efficient as possible, I will solicit readers of my site in this effort. So, if anyone out there has any ideas or wishes, please post them here as comments, or you can email me, and I will still give you proper credit for them.

Next, I will list, and illustrate my ideas, as I mentioned I would do in my last post...

GeoGed.com Revisited - Part 2

To continue on with the my last related post...

Presentation of an imported Gedcom file in Google Earth.

I have to say what GeoGed.com has done with the colored circles is really good looking. What might also be good is to create a blue one for Paternal lines and a Pink for Maternal lines, with an option to choose another color(s) for non-direct lines.

Description Title: National ID #, Persons Name

Description "Bubble":

Out Of The Earth Comes Gedcom

Part I

Its here! Well almost here... I just got an email from a Johann Robette at GeoGed.com . Its apparently a new startup site that has come up with a way to convert GEDCOM files to work with Google Earth! Their initial launch is FREE! From his site it says;

GeoGed.com, genealogical cartography

"Created by a passionated genealogist and programmer, GeoGed is a free service enabling you to create precised and detailed maps of your own genealogy."

"Up to now, it only deals with some European countries (UK, BE, LU, NL, DE, ES, IT, FR). It has just finish being beta-tested and is in phase of communication." [per Johann]

I have done some testing of this, using a US based GEDCOM file, and provide you an inside look on how it works for this purpose. I will also provide a critique along the way. Please realize this is JUST an initial launch, and I hope it will soon fully support US based Gedcom files.

Out Of The Earth Comes Gedcom - Part 2

As I was saying in the first article on this; After selecting "Validate" you will see something like the following...

If any of the results have a Red X next to them you can go "Back" and fix it. Otherwise you can ignore it and continue on, it will still generate a Google Earth KML file....