I've been trying to find a way to quickly communicate the basic challenges of genealogy to others. I thought I'd try kind of a white board approach to it. This is The first portion of a longer video. The entire video presents a quick overview of what genealogy is, what some of the common challenges are for those getting started and proposes a future solution - 'The FamilySearch Way'. I've cut out the last part - 'The FamilySearch Way'. So sorry, I'm not tipping my hat yet about what's coming after new FamilySearch. I'd be curious in your feedback on the first two parts of the video. Does it hit home for you? Are there some major issues that should have been included in a high-level overview of this nature but were not?
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5 comments:
Kept me entertained and wanting to see more.
I'm sorry... I don't know if it is my computer, but there is a high-pitched noise playing in the background of your video. I don't know if it is the audio you used. If it's my computer, I'm sorry, but I just thought you should know.
MommyMonica,
I redid the video and fixed the sound issue you described. It was really annoying, wasn't it? Sorry.
Some points: Using sources (not unsourced trees) and working though conflicting information.
I can strongly relate to the need to organize as well as deciding if two people in different sources are in fact the same person. I may have a stronger need than most. I have a rare surname in my tree. It seems like it should be easiest to just grab everything with that surname in that part of the country and try to link things together. But I'm reduced to writing on 3x5 cards and shuffling them around a coffee table. Something's wrong with that picture.
As far as coordination, in real life we coordinate with the people we choose. We don't have to accept their assertions into our copy of the data. That's an area that I'm hearing a lot of complaints with nFS as it is now. Anyone can come along and mess up what you've spent a lot of time straightening out.
Community effort a la Wikipedia work well, but only because it has tools that makes it easier to remove trash then it is to insert it in the first place. That seems to be lacking in what I've seen so far.
But on a whole I like what I see so far - keep going.
The tone of the video was lighthearted, sympathetic and encouraging. New genealogists need to feel that from those who train them.
I expected the part about the difficulty of following one direct line to suggest the technique of finding siblings and their families along the way. Perhaps that's too in-depth for an overview.
As part of the Family Search Way, some tips on collaboration would be helpful, especially in how much information to include in a question and citing verifiable evidence to support answers.
One of the drawings reminded me of Muriel and Eustace from "Courage the Cowardly Dog" :).
And y'all can't come to my house, there's no room!
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