OGS Genealogy News

Since the dawn of the Internet, many public institutions such as museums and historical societies have taken the lead in building great websites and sharing their treasures online. Other holders of public records, such as newspapers, county courts and libraries, also have built sites to share their materials.  A few excellent genealogy sites (such as www.rootsweb.com, www.ancestry.com and www.myfamily.com, allow the public to post personal queries, share data and connect with each other.

Unfortunately, only a small number of private families have created websites for sharing their materials in attractive ways.  Adding to the void is that the limited personal data online usually is quite dry, such as lists of names and dates. During this special Ohio Bicentennial year, it’s time for genealogists to elevate their work to the next level – and onto the Internet – to be shared in new and exciting ways with the public. 

There are a host of beneficial reasons to consider building your own website. First, it provides an opportunity to share information, stories and photographs without ever having to part with your originals. Second, it can help attract other researchers and long-lost cousins who can be part of your team and add to your knowledge base. Third, for older genealogists who have techno-savvy grandchildren, it provides an opportunity to work together and to teach younger generations about their ancestors in appealing ways.

The process can be intimidating – but it’s easier than you might expect. Tools exist to make building and maintaining a site easy. There are a host of website design manuals and “how-to” books for sale in bookstores everywhere. As well, some web-design software comes with an easy-to-follow tutorial to practice on before beginning actual design.

This article will highlight one private family site – www.minerd.com – and discuss the reasons why it was built, with an overview of how it was accomplished.

About Our Site – Minerd.com, the award-winning family history website of the Minerd-Minard-Miner-Minor clan, is a step toward propelling genealogy into the digital age. Launched in May 2000, it has been named one of the “Top 10 Family Sites” in the nation by Family Tree Magazine and won the Golden Gate Genealogy Forum’s “Best Site Pick” in July 2002.  Newspapers such as Ohio’s Chillicothe Gazette and Florida’s St. Petersburg Times have printed feature stories, saying the site has built "a national following" and is "informative, educational and interesting…"

My article about building Minerd.com

The Need – When conceiving the site, several major objectives were pursued, including:

• Sharing a body of knowledge accumulated since 1985 involving tens of thousands of documents and photographs;

• Reaching, educating and engaging tens of thousands of cousins estimated to be scattered throughout the U.S., most of whom likely would be indifferent to genealogy;

• Creatively presenting history to capture the imaginations of younger generations;

• Providing a benchmark of standard information to separate out fiction from fact; and
  Promoting our annual national reunion.

Strategy – Our strategy was to build an outreach tool by providing information for free to encourage meaningful exchange of information. The site was designed to be easy to find and navigate. Another goal was to portray the "big picture" of our family’s role in the sweep of American history by showcasing long-dead ancestors as living, vibrant people in their heyday and as contributors to society.

Features of the Site – The primary focus of Minerd.com is an encyclopedic set of more than 1,000 biographies. These are indexed alphabetically and linked to bios of parents, siblings and children for ease in clicking back through the generations to the original German immigrants.

The site also features many thousands of rare photos, news headlines, maps and other graphics to provide dynamic visual interest. 

Our Memoirs publish the diverse voices of our cousins, including works by 13 authors, past and present.  Among other topics, they discuss firsthand experiences of the Sept. 11th tragedy, working with orphans in Philadelphia circa 1915 and the Great Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. Finally, the site summarizes studies on our clan’s role in the fields of public education; coal, coke and steel; and the military.

Building the Site – When planning the site, it was important to visualize how it should be structured, what it should look like and how it was to be maintained. It took several months to develop, starting by mapping some ideas on paper. By visiting www.register.com, I was able to acquire the rights to a short, compact and easy-to-remember address (www.minerd.com).  We also found a company to host our site (www.earthlink.net), which has a problem-solving capability available at any given time.  As a bonus, the host was able to furnish statistics on how our site was being used, such as number of hits and most popular pages.  Since we were going to be writing our own material, each page is protected with copyright notices to prevent unauthorized re-use and sale of our property.

User-Friendly Tools – To build the site, we employed several user-friendly tools. They included:

·         Microsoft FrontPage to construct the actual web pages and internal architecture;

·         Hewlett-Packard scanner to copy photos and texts; and

·         Adobe PhotoDeluxe software for changing the size, crop and density of photos.

Other Options – Some readers may be on limited budgets or timeframes and may not wish to invest in all these steps.  As an alternative, there are pages at www.rootsweb.com, as well as sites such as www.myfamily.com, where you can create your own websites and post data for free. These are good for genealogists who have smaller amounts of material.  However, these sites have restrictions and conditions, and some are password-protected and not available to the public at large, defeating some of the purpose.

Promoting the Site – We actively promote Minerd.com and brand it as a "go-to" destination. This has included registering its address with search engines; sending email updates to our network of cousins; speaking at public forums; and helping the news media prepare stories.

Observations and Conclusions – The public response to Minerd.com has been overwhelming. It has attracted more than 140,000 hits, as well as a surprisingly large number of contacts from younger cousins. Long lost relatives have freely shared photographs, documents and information, and historians, genealogists, museums and libraries have requested information and images.

This is strong quantifiable evidence that effective websites can help transform genealogy into something more relevant to the public.  Collectively, the site also speaks to the public’s growing awareness of how a single family can have remarkable long-term impact on American society. If this idea appeals to you, what’s to stop you today from taking the first step toward creating your own site?

Mark A. Miner is president of the national Minerd-Minard-Miner-Minor Reunion, held ever other summer in southwestern Pennsylvania. For more information, contact him at markminer@mindspring.com.

Copyright © 2003, 2008 Mark A. Miner