With our monthly gatherings rearranged into “Gatherings,” we thought it important to maintain the mini-monthly recordings on tips and tricks of using Substack. Today we focused on Substack Live.
So, back from the rabbit hole 🐇 🕳️ with a follow-up concerning the site RAOGK.org (Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness). Again, thank you for the tip.
Unfortunately, it turns out to be a cautionary tale about the importance of backups and collaborators.
Though I've made my case for moving out of Facebook, (see Projectkin.org/social) creating a free, platform-independent replacement for all Facebook Genealogy groups is a little out of my wheelhouse. That said, I'd welcome any Facebook Group moving into this free and well-funded Substack neighborhood and would be happy to help them get started.
If you know of such a group, send them my way here or at Projectkin.org.
With a little effort, I could put a Projectkin "cookbook" together to show others how to do it. The best independence is empowerment, freedom, and a working business model. 😉
Well, my ambitions for freeing groups from the clutches of Facebook aside, I have to say I'm impressed with the scope and scale these RAOGK have grown to within the Facebook umbrella. Cynthia Raleigh was kind enough to tip me off to these groups now so large they're sorted by country. It's pretty breathtaking. I've applied for entrance (one of my few Facebook exceptions for now, groups) at facebook.com/groups/raogkUSA.
As is so often the case... I feel like the last to know. Oh well. At least it's not the first time. 🤦♀️
Thank you, Barbara, for including me as a resource or reference for family history writing. I feel so honored. 🥹 This is a topic I’m very passionate about, as I know you know! 😁
Thanks, Barbara - Yes definitely better 2nd time around I think but not surprising given that it's new and a learning process. So, no issues from my perspective about you ditching the earlier Pacific version.
In the blurb re tools - you don't have any New Zealand based ones.
Two free tools I use a lot for NZ based research are:
*Papers Past - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/ This is provided by the National Library of New Zealand and includes information from newspapers, magazines and journals, diaries and letters, parliamentary papers, and electronic books.
*NZ Ancestor Search Helper - https://ash.howison.co.nz/ This was developed in a private capacity by Luke Howison who has made it available publicly for anyone to use. He is progressively adding features to it.
Oh, wow, Jane! While it's embarrassing to pull this together when it's so woefully limited compared to the universe of sites, you've reminded me of another unexpected benefit:... Reviewing your list of New Zealand sites reminds me of all the kinds of places it never occurred to me to look in the regions for MY ancestors! That's brilliant.
Seconds after posting that, I received a reply on Bluesky to my query about finding a contact for the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK.org) group.
While my lovely new friend Highlands Wanderlust (@christopherpadgett.bsky.social) didn't know them, he recommended we check out the International German Genealogy Partnership... including a huge Google Map of regional resources.
There's more: The Germanic Genealogy Society of MN will host an event on Thursday, January 16, which nails our target example: "The Power of Home Country Research: A Key Step before German Record Research" (https://ggsmn.org/eventListings.php?nm=38).
From my perspective, this was less about a specific research path and more about finding the right source for the right resources. The conclusion is to pay attention to the aggregators who've put the hard work into the partnerships that bubble up this kind of work. (🤔 I have German/Prussian/German-speaking ancestors I need to research... 📚)
This is fantastic Barbara. To me, today's session showed exactly why Break Out Rooms work so well. It really is a great addition to these sessions. I love also being able to check what the other room discussed. I wanted to be in both!
So, back from the rabbit hole 🐇 🕳️ with a follow-up concerning the site RAOGK.org (Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness). Again, thank you for the tip.
Unfortunately, it turns out to be a cautionary tale about the importance of backups and collaborators.
If the story told by Wikipedia is correct (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_Acts_of_Genealogical_Kindness), it appears that the site, founded in 1999, went offline after the passing of the founder, Bridgett Schneider, in 2011. After an attempt by Bridgett's husband Doc, it looks like there was a valiant attempt to resurrect it on Fandom (see raogk.fandom.com/wiki/Random_Acts_of_Genealogical_Kindness_Wiki) but that seems to have stalled (perhaps a day job got in the way. See familypedia.fandom.com/wiki/Talk:William_Cowan_(1750-1809)).
Interestingly, the last reference to it I found was from a post on Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems blog where a post describes genealogy groups on Facebook as having supplanted the group. (See: lisalouisecooke.com/2014/10/08/random-acts-of-genealogical-kindness/)
Though I've made my case for moving out of Facebook, (see Projectkin.org/social) creating a free, platform-independent replacement for all Facebook Genealogy groups is a little out of my wheelhouse. That said, I'd welcome any Facebook Group moving into this free and well-funded Substack neighborhood and would be happy to help them get started.
If you know of such a group, send them my way here or at Projectkin.org.
With a little effort, I could put a Projectkin "cookbook" together to show others how to do it. The best independence is empowerment, freedom, and a working business model. 😉
Well, my ambitions for freeing groups from the clutches of Facebook aside, I have to say I'm impressed with the scope and scale these RAOGK have grown to within the Facebook umbrella. Cynthia Raleigh was kind enough to tip me off to these groups now so large they're sorted by country. It's pretty breathtaking. I've applied for entrance (one of my few Facebook exceptions for now, groups) at facebook.com/groups/raogkUSA.
As is so often the case... I feel like the last to know. Oh well. At least it's not the first time. 🤦♀️
Thank you, Barbara, for including me as a resource or reference for family history writing. I feel so honored. 🥹 This is a topic I’m very passionate about, as I know you know! 😁
Thanks, Barbara - Yes definitely better 2nd time around I think but not surprising given that it's new and a learning process. So, no issues from my perspective about you ditching the earlier Pacific version.
In the blurb re tools - you don't have any New Zealand based ones.
Two free tools I use a lot for NZ based research are:
*Papers Past - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/ This is provided by the National Library of New Zealand and includes information from newspapers, magazines and journals, diaries and letters, parliamentary papers, and electronic books.
*NZ Ancestor Search Helper - https://ash.howison.co.nz/ This was developed in a private capacity by Luke Howison who has made it available publicly for anyone to use. He is progressively adding features to it.
Oh, wow, Jane! While it's embarrassing to pull this together when it's so woefully limited compared to the universe of sites, you've reminded me of another unexpected benefit:... Reviewing your list of New Zealand sites reminds me of all the kinds of places it never occurred to me to look in the regions for MY ancestors! That's brilliant.
It's also the power of community! Huzzah!
Seconds after posting that, I received a reply on Bluesky to my query about finding a contact for the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK.org) group.
While my lovely new friend Highlands Wanderlust (@christopherpadgett.bsky.social) didn't know them, he recommended we check out the International German Genealogy Partnership... including a huge Google Map of regional resources.
There's more: The Germanic Genealogy Society of MN will host an event on Thursday, January 16, which nails our target example: "The Power of Home Country Research: A Key Step before German Record Research" (https://ggsmn.org/eventListings.php?nm=38).
From my perspective, this was less about a specific research path and more about finding the right source for the right resources. The conclusion is to pay attention to the aggregators who've put the hard work into the partnerships that bubble up this kind of work. (🤔 I have German/Prussian/German-speaking ancestors I need to research... 📚)
This is fantastic Barbara. To me, today's session showed exactly why Break Out Rooms work so well. It really is a great addition to these sessions. I love also being able to check what the other room discussed. I wanted to be in both!