Unleashing My iPad

Lisa Louise Cooke.  Turn Your iPad into a Genealogy Powerhouse.  
c2012, www.lisalouisecooke.com.

Most of the genealogy books at my public library are for in-library use only.  I was glad to see Lisa Louise Cooke's book, Turn Your iPad into a Genealogy Powerhouse, on the shelf recently and available for check-out.  This book had actually been on my gift hint list for a while so I was happy to finally read it.

We've had an iPad for over a year and a half, plus another tablet computer, so I was pretty familiar with a lot of the tips she covers in her book.  I liked the way she organized tablet apps by category - file sharing, genealogy, note taking, organization apps, plus many others, so I just skimmed through parts of the book.  But, as with any good read, I learned some new tricks.

I've been using Evernote for several years, primarily for note taking when watching webinars and for making to-do-lists.  It took reading Cooke's comments about adding iPad photos into Evernote for me to realize that my tablet computer can function as a scanner.  No more hunting change for the copier or trying to find its location in an unfamiliar research facility!  (Note: just remember to ask permission first before taking photos of document pages.)  Once I add the photos into Evernote, they are easy to tag, put in a folder, or transfer to other software.

My other favorite section was her comments on apps that let you view videos which need Adobe Flash Play.  Its inability to use Adobe Flash is about the only negative I see in our iPad so we are currently looking at the options she suggests as work around apps for this problem. One is a free app, the others are reasonably priced for what they purport to do.

Whether you are an experienced table computer user or a newbie, Lisa Louise Cooke's book is filled with helpful hints about apps and ways to use your tablet in your genealogy research.  The book was definitely well worth the time to read and the notes I took.  Check it out yourself.

Tuesday's Tips - The Organized Genealogist

My desk on a good day ...

My genealogy space probably looks like so many others - piles of papers, photos, plus stuff I know is there but can't lay my hands on at this exact minute.  It is comforting to see that so many other members of The Organized Genealogist facebook group have started with similar problems and are now posting their solutions on a variety of organizational topics.

The Organized Genealogist web site actually links to four areas: 

• The Organized Genealogist facebook page.  This page is open to all and is what lead to the discussion group on facebook.
• The Organized Genealogist discussion group on facebook.  This discussion group is a closed group, but you can request to be a part of it.  There are usually several original postings a day which received a lot of "likes" and helpful comments.  Plus group administrator Susan Peterson may post an organizational challenge, enabling you to follow the solutions others have come up with to solve an issue.  For me, this is a treasure chest of helpful information.
• The Organized Genealogist blog.  The blog has occasional posts including guest posts on a variety of organizational topics, often with photos.  
• The Organized Genealogist Twitter feed.

I've been part of the discussion group for a few weeks now and have already picked up several helpful, proven suggestions.  I've even started a list on Google Drive of these suggestions so I can remember them, then note when and how I actually accomplish them.

Here's are a few examples of the type of helpful information available through the discussion group.  Cyndi Howells of Cyndi's List posted about ways to organize PC files and included a lot of basic organizational tips.  Earlier, another post mentioned how helpful a second monitor was when transcribing old letters and other documents.  Thanks to my husband, the TV in our guest room / genealogy / scrapbooking space is now serving as my second monitor.  Plus, last week there were a number of different suggestions on how to remove old photos from those sticky page albums we all used years ago.

The Organized Genealogist Discussion Group has facebook posts I definitely take the time to read each day.  No telling what helpful information I might miss if I scrolled past them.

A First Step For State Resources

source: Wikimedia Commons

I'm always on the lookout for online genealogy resources for various states.  Because most of my family as well as my husband's family lived in Georgia, I have a lengthy list of bookmarked web sites in a "Georgia Resources" folder.  That works fine until someone moves to Iowa or California or even Mississippi.  Then I need a new place to start looking for family history resources.

Recently I came across a portion of the www.usa.gov web site that provides a list of State Genealogy links.(1)  There is generally one link listed for each state.  That link is often to the State Archives or similar government agency whose web site in turn has links to a number of state genealogy resources.  The link for other states might be to the state's GenWeb Project (as in the case for Iowa), to the State Library (California), or to the State Historical Society (Mississippi).  One note, some of the states whose only link is to the state Department of Public Health / Vital Records may have broken links so you will need to access this state agency on your own.

For me, it has been helpful to use www.usa.gov, an official government web site, as a first step for locating resources of a specific state.  After all, as Lao-tze said, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a simple step".(2)

http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/History-Family/State-Genealogy.shtml

(1)  "Genealogy Resources By State." database. USA.gov. http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/History-Family/State-Genealogy.shtml : 2013.

(2)  The Quotations Page. database. http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/24004.html : 2013.

Mappy Monday - Mapping With Google Course

https://mapping.withgoogle.com/course

Thanks to a link in Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds, I learned about the free Mapping With Google course currently available online through June 24.  First I read the post in The We Tree Genealogy Blog to learn more about the course then went to the Mapping With Google web site to register.  Sure, I've used both Google Maps and Google Earth as genealogy resources before, but I was excited to learn more about how to create and customize maps that could then be shared with others.

The self-paced course covers using both Google Maps and Google Earth.  Once I registered for the course, I spend the next hour or so working on three parts of the five modules.  Most modules have a short video, the chance to apply what you learned while looking at sample maps, then completing your own map.  As I've worked on the modules, I've been taking notes in Evernote so I can still refer to them later on if I need to.

Two notes - Some of the activities require an invite to use the new Google Maps.  As soon as I receive my invite, I'll go back and complete the parts I've had to skip in the Google Maps activities.  Also, a number of people, myself included, continue to have issues importing the provided spreadsheets with GPS locations into our maps. The course staff continues to work on this problem.  Even with these two issues, I have already learned a lot.

Beside watching the videos on a topic, doing the self-check activities, studying sample maps, and making a simple map, you are also encouraged to complete a Google Maps project and a Google Earth project.  You then can evaluate them as to the features included and user-friendliness of each project.  Now I'm actually hoping for some rainy days this week so that I can try to complete my two projects.

My first map shows activities in the area to check out the next time we have the grandchildren up for a visit.  This way I can share it with them and let them pick out some of the things they want to do while here.  

As I'm learning more about customizing my map by adding colored or shaped icons, web links, photos, categories, and descriptions, I'm also getting exciting about ways I want to use these techniques to create and share family history information.  The first genealogy map I want to make will show family residences for my family and my husband's over a span of years.  Both families had lived for years in Cherokee County, Georgia, and I've been researching both families long enough to feel sure that they must have bumped into each other in town over the years.  It will have color coded icons to indicate the family tree of the resident and shades of color to represent the time period of residence.  Can't wait to get working on this.  Then I want to do several family migration maps incorporating photos of people and houses as my family had relatives moving around the country.  And then ...

You can learn the details of the course and register for it here.  Just remember to do this before June 24.