Our office is still closed. The office is inside the Fort Dodge Public Library. They have not been told when they will reopen.So.
I have finished doing research with Dave Peterson from Boxholm. Research was done on his mothers Guth/Good side.Working on research for Glenn Stark, for his wife’s side. The last name is Munech,and variations in the 1700’s. . I did find a free site in Germany. I asked them for assistance, but they don’t do that. .Research for Jason Roskup, looking for a birth certificate for April 1915 for Mary Roskup/Roskopf. Could not find a brith certificate, but did find a baptism record for her.Research for David Mathias, looking for a death cert for George Hutchinson for 1908.I could not find one. I refered him to the free Advantage Preservation Newspapers for Webster County and the free site, Familysearch.org.
Henry passed away on Monday the 3rd of March. He is the husband of Marion Pliner. Marion does the newsletters.
I did send a card and memorial.
If you want to send card:
Marion Pliner
1507 Pebble Creek Drive
Dubuque, IA 52002
Susan M. Olson
In May, I gave a program on Pinterest for Genealogy at the monthly meeting of the Webster County Genealogical Society. On Oct. 26, I gave a slightly updated version of that program at the Hamilton Heritage Hunters workshop in Stanhope. Unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties, and I had to just “tell” the presentation without “showing,” as the projector had a different kind of adapter than my laptop, and my laptop didn’t “see” the wi-fi that it needed to. So I just talked about the subject, rather than being able to click on links to go to websites and show what I meant.
So I promised I would put the presentation online, and here it is. Carol Snyder Foltz
Pinterest for Genealogy
I use social media sites like Pinterest, Facebook and so on for a couple of reasons. 1) To learn. I find out new things from other genealogists. 2) to share what I know. My research is on as many sites as I can manage, in order to share what I’ve done so it doesn’t get lost when I’m not around any more.
What
is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a social media platform.
It is a bookmarking site. It’s like a scrapbook of websites.
I used to buy magazines like Woman’s
Day and Family Circle. When I liked an article, I would cut it out.
Recipes, home decorating tips, organization tips – you name it.
Pinterest is kind of like that, except that instead of physical things cut out from magazines, it aggregates things pinned – or saved – by others. And now it also allows you to upload things that aren’t links to other sites.
Terminology
A board is a collection of similar items.
A pin is a single item in a board. When
you save something, it’s called pinning. It’s like pinning something
on a bulletin board.
When you follow someone, you will see
things they have pinned.
How
can we use Pinterest for Genealogy?
The obvious and easiest way to use
Pinterest is to pin things that come up on your wall.
When you first sign up for Pinterest,
you get default boards. You can add boards and name them. When
Pinterest gets an idea what you are looking for (you can use the
search box), it will show you more of that type of thing.
Recently, it showed me one thing about
funerals. I saved that thing. So it showed me more things about
funerals and about estate planning.
The same thing will happen with the
other boards that you set up. Once you show an interest in a topic,
you will see more of that topic.
You can also follow people or follow specific boards of people. The Webster County Genealogical Society has a Pinterest account. You can follow us at www.pinterest.com/wcgsiowa.
(Cyndi’s List
https://www.pinterest.com/cyndislist/)
This is entirely up to you. Look at
other people’s boards to get some ideas. The society’s boards are
entirely about genealogy topics. My personal boards have a variety.
Some of my pins are not all that well organized.
Pinterest has made some changes since
it started. One thing is that you can add sections to a board. So I
have a Family History board, with different sections like Cemeteries,
Census, Immigration, Crafts and scrapbooking, Photo organization …
so many categories.
You can also move pins from one board
or section to another if you change your mind about how your boards
should be organized. I have a board about sewing projects and another
one about ideas for quilts to make with my mom’s old clothing. But I
don’t have a board just about quilting. So I could create a board
about quilting or a section under sewing. And I could move my Ideas
for Mom quilts under either of those categories.
What
about pins that are not linked to websites?
You can upload images to your boards.
Generally, pins are designed to be a thing that you click on to take
you to a website for more information. However, there is also a use
for just uploading family photos, for example.
Here’s why I have started doing this. I
have a family history blog. I pay for a domain name and hosting. When
I started this, I wasn’t thinking that far into the future. However,
I realize now that my daughters are not going to want to continue my
blog. Once I stop paying for it, it will disappear. So I need to get
the information online in different formats so that it won’t be lost.
One way to do that is through online
trees on sites like Ancestry, Family Search, My Heritage and
Wikitree. I have a secret group for a particular set of cousins on
Facebook. Secret groups can only be seen by the group members. It’s a
very small group, and because it’s secret, if there is someone who
might be eligible and want to join, they wouldn’t even know about it.
But Pinterest offers another option to
share this information. I can upload family photos with the
information relating to them. I can create pins that lead to my blog
– and update the links when I finally get around to putting the
information on a site that doesn’t require me to continue to pay for
hosting (like Blogspot). People do have to sign up for a Pinterest
account, but that’s free.
Be aware of copyright issues. (See
https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2013/02/19/copyright-terms-of-use-and-pinterest/)
This comes up in the adult coloring groups I’m in. Using Pinterest to
locate websites with information is good. When someone images that
belong to someone else to Pinterest and you download those images and
use them without attribution to the artist or author is not good. In
the case of the coloring pages, I try to find the artist and get the
image from their website. For genealogy purposes, I click through to
the website. There may be more information there that I can use.
Don’t forget to follow through on
your pins. Saving them is one thing. But click through to make
sure that the link has information you want and is still valid. You
might find that a website has been deleted, or reorganized, so that
link names have changed. If the site is still up, you may still be
able to find the information.
I recommend “Pinning Your Family
History” by Thomas MacEntee. It’s 99 cents on Amazon. It’s a very
short book, but has some good tips.
Other Social Media
Facebook
As I mentioned, I have a secret group
on Facebook for cousins on my mom’s side. I also belong to a bunch of
genealogy-related groups and follow genealogy-related pages.
Genealogy Master List of Facebook
Groups https://www.facebook.com/groups/744717045667772/
Twitter
I follow genealogy researchers and
bloggers on Twitter. One favorite is Jennifer Mendelsohn, who does
what she calls “resistance genealogy.” That is, she researches
the family trees of public figures who say bad things about
immigrants. Often, she finds the same things in those family trees
that those people are speaking against. Chain immigration (where
family members come to the U.S. in small groups), people who
immigrate but don’t learn English right away, people who were deemed
at risk of becoming a public charge, people who come here as young
children. Each of those cases was spoken against by a current
descendant of people who did those things.
To find out more about using social
media for genealogy, do a search on Google to find websites and
YouTube for videos. Follow genealogists on different platforms
(Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram) to see what they are
saying.