Genealogy and DNA 2

Whenever I start to look at a new subject my first port of call is usually Google, actually any search engine will do, but I tend to use Google. Such a search for "genealogy DNA" took me to the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG), and to their forum DNA-NEWBIE. Both are free to join, the objects of  ISOGG include education of which the forum is part.

It must be said that the name of the forum somewhat belies its content. As a newbie, I was looking for simple answers to basics questions, and too often these answers went over my head, although now and again punctuated by a ray of light! Nevertheless I do recommend both, and by sticking with the forum I did pick up much, even if I did have to use Google for terms which I did not fully understand.

Through the forum I first came across autosomal DNA (auDNA) which is found in the 22 chromosones which, unlike the 23rd, do not contain the sex determining ones. This DNA contains a mixture of auDNA of both the father and mother, and as such is available for both male and female testing. I suggest a visit to the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation to see a video of the four types of DNA.

It would seem that there are two main companies involved in auDNA testing 23andme and FT-DNA's Family Finder although at the time of writing Ancestry.com may be moving in this direction. Reading between the lines of the DNA-NEWBIE forum, I gained the impression that 23andme is probably more concerned with inherited illnesses rather than genealogy. As a result many of those tested keep their results private.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed from mother to daughter, but is present in both sexes, so whilst a male can follow his paternal and maternal lines back, a female can only follow her maternal line. Because of the (western) norm of a daughter taking her father's surname, there is no continuity in surnames as there is in the male Y-DNA line. I will not be going further into the mtDNA, nor the auDNA, at the moment, but who knows where I am going!

I was also fortunate to buy a copy of "Family History in the Genes" by Chris Pomery, published by the National Archives 2007. Unfortunately this is now out of print, but Amazon.co.uk currently have 6 used copies available. Hopefully an updated version will be available in the future.

One recommendation is common to all sources, that is to join a DNA surname society for the name being researched. Not only does that usually mean a reasonable discount on the testing costs, but, perhaps more importantly, a depth of knowledge on the surname in question, and easily accessible lists of members with the same surname and comparative DNA results. Whilst it is possible to make your results private, I can see no point in so doing; surely the whole point is to see to whom you may be connected.

© Ron Ferguson 2012

Create a Search Engine Sitemap

Although my genealogy website has been on line for many years I have not bothered to include an XML Sitemap for use by search engines, although, naturally, I had a sitemap for humans. However, to have a decent ranking it is becoming more important that an XML sitemap is included, especially for Google and Bing.

Naturally, being a genealogist, I am a reluctant payer, and I searched for a free sitemap creation program. I could not get the Google Sitemap Creator to install on my PC, so I looked at site after site using Google, all of which had a limit on their free entries of between 500 and, say, 3000 pages. I have almost 9,000 pages on my site, so they were not of much use. I then came across Xenu.

Unlike the other programs which created the sitemap on-line, with Xeno you download the program, and run it on your own PC, which was when I realised that there was an unexpected bonus with this program, it has a Link Checker! Actually, this may be the main function of the program, but by this time I was suffering from tunnel vision! So I ran it, and it tested the links on my 8,600 pages in 44 minutes, identifying a number of broken links of which I was unaware - brilliant.

The XML Search Engine Sitemap was created in no time at all, and I uploaded it to the root of my site and submitted it to every Search Engine I knew. I now await with interest to see if the visits to my site increase. The program also produces a report of its activities whilst searching your pages but, probably because of the size and depth of my site, it took far too long for me to wait until it completed its work.

It was never my intention to use this Blog to promote software, however I am making this exception for Xeno because (a) it is free and (b) it is perfect for the job I wanted it to do, and more. I rank this program as my "Find of the year".

The Genealogists' Revenge

For those who use Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome, and, in the last couple of months, have downloaded the new Google toolbar you may have seen a little writing pad icon, usually at the bottom left of a page. This is the new Google Sidewiki, click it and one can enter a comment which will remain attached to that page.
If there is an entry in the Sidewiki on a page then the icon on the left, which turns yellow on hovering over it, will be seen at the top of the page. One can also use the Sidewiki icon on the Google Toolbar.

Visitors and webmasters may have different views as to the benefit, or otherwise, of this facility, and I am not going to enter into this discussion, but rather look at how by correct usage it can advantage both. However, it is initially necessary to look at some of the controversal aspects:

1. Can a webmaster switch it off? No, although I understand it does not appear on secure sites
2. Can a webmaster edit a visitor's entry? No
3. Can a webmaster delete a visitor's entry: No
4. Google says that it will check for inappropriate entries - if flagged
5. Entries are entered in a priority list as determined by Google

The potential pitfalls for webmasters are  obvious, but there are some steps which can be taken to minimise these.

Take part-ownership of the Sidewiki 

 

It is necessary to first register your site with Google Webmasters, you will need to register yourself with Google for this. You will then be given the option of including a meta tag in your script (see my Web Creation Blogs) or uploading an html script to the root of your site. There is also an automatic link to Blogger. Once done your own entry can be permanently entered to the top of the list on every page - although I have not been able to get the "all pages" check box to appear on my sites using Firefox!

Check all entries

 

The entries which visitors make can also be read by the webmaster using either your Google Profile or from an RSS feed using the URL: http://www.google.com/sidewiki/feeds/entries/domainpath/www.MY DOMAIN.COM%2Ffergys%2F/default?includeLessUseful=true, replace "MY DOMAIN.COM with your own domain name and delete the "www." if not included in your URL. Using this is somewhat messy, so I suggest that you use a feed generator.

What use is it?

 

If used properly then the Sidewiki offers an opportunity for commenting on, and discussing, individual entries in a genealogy website, such as: whether Joe Blogs has the correct parents. This can be done in a most convenient way compared with having to go to a comments page or sending an email, and it is open for other interested parties to enter the debate.

And why do I title this piece the "Genealogists' Revenge"? Well, when we now see our research published on a website by someone else, and without attribution, we can now claim it back! If the cap fits I advise caution.

© Ron Ferguson 2009

Tips for Family Tree Webpages 3

The one aspect of attracting visitors to our site which we have not yet considered is that of promotion. The main point being that what we need to do is to sell the site, I can already hear the shouts of "Sell? But this is a hobby!", so I will repeat myself, yes, sell! In the first part of this trilogy we looked at why we create websites, and to achieve any of the objects described we have the need to attract visitors, so how can we do this, free and from our armchairs?

A little knowledge of HTML is helpful, but not essential in considering this section. The code of any web page can be viewed in your browser by using View>Source, or something very similar. At the start we have the head which lies between two tags: <head> and </head>. Within this lies the title and some meta tags, the latter we will come to later.

For many, the first page visited will be the index page, so the title for this page should describe succinctly the whole of the sites contents, mine has the title "Fergys Website of Genealogy, Software and Social", which is what the site is about. If it was only about my family tree then I could have called it "The Ferguson Family Tree", the quotes are not required. If at all possible the title should be at the top of the head. Below is a screen shot of part of my index page head.

From this we can see the two meta tags which are important for our purposes viz. "Description" and "Keywords". The former should contain a general description of the site and the latter the keywords which you believe will attract people to your site, in particular the aspects which you wish to emphasize and which you feel will best attract visitors. I have seen genealogy sites where every surname has been included in the Keywords of the index page. This is not necessary as search engines will get them from the index, or individual pages.

That's it for your website, now for the selling! As a minimum, we should to tell Google and Yahoo, these URLs will take you to the pages to register your site with them, but do not expect an instant inclusion in the lists, it may take over a month. Nor should I worry about page rankings as it is very unlikely that a genealogy site will generate enough traffic to warrant inclusion - I think I have only one page which has the lowest ranking of 1 and that is not a genealogy page! This does not mean, however, that your site is consigned to number 1,245,000 on the lists, mine are consistently near the top, especially in the UK list.

Try and get others to include your URL on their site, I try and make it a condition that anyone publishing my data also includes my URL, not easily enforced but does produce results. Include the URL in your signature to public mailing groups, the more a search engine sees your URL the higher up the list it goes. Include it in your Blogs, on Facebook and Twitter etc. and if you can get it in your local press or elsewhere then so much the better. Create a demand, but do not expect instant results, my site has been active for a number of years.

Which brings me to my final point, regularly update, because search engines take more interest in sites which are clearly active; I update mine every month, sometimes the changes may be small, but nevertheless it shows the site is not dormant.

More information can be found on Fergys Website in the Tutorials section - still selling :-) - where I look into the creation of websites, often using Legacy Software which automatically adds a basic title to each individual page.

Good luck

© Ronald Ferguson 2009