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December Slow Genealogy Traffic

By Forbes Magazine, on 30-12-2007 21:56

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Online Sites Offer Peek Into The Past

It is the time of year when families travel to be together, share meals and sit around swapping stories about childhood, relatives who've passed away and what life was like in the old country.

Seems like a recipe for surging traffic at Web sites devoted to family history. But oddly enough, that's not what happens.

"You'd think people would get to talking with family, and then look online," says Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Web-tracking firm Hitwise, who notes that the holiday season is actually a low point for genealogy and family tree sites, since people on vacation tend to spend less time on the computer.

In Pictures: Searching For Your Roots Online

Instead, interest in family roots is piqued all year round, and in the last year, dozens of start-ups have launched slick, easy-to-use sites to help the curious get started building their online family trees and family social networks.

Genealogy sites, namely those from the Provo, Utah-based company Generations Network, have been around nearly as long as the Web itself, but they typically cost money to run basic searches and have a distinct "Web 1.0" feel. Though Ancestry.com, the Generations Network's flagship site, receives more traffic than any other genealogy site on the Web, its traffic has been flat during the past year, according to Hitwise data, suggesting room for improvement and an available market niche for a more innovative competitor.

For the past year, genealogy-related Web-traffic has held steady at about 9.1 million U.S. visitors per month, according to ComScore data, but newcomers to the business hope to steal that traffic from the old guard of sites and grow it into a huge audience of repeat-visitors.

One of the earliest "Web 2.0" family tree start-ups is Geni.com, which launched in January 2007 and has since received $11.5 million in venture capital (valuing the company at $100 million) and attracted nearly 1 million registered users. The company's founder, former PayPal chief operating officer David Sacks, wants his site to be useful throughout the year as family members mark birthdays, anniversaries and other life events. But like all social networks, Sacks' challenge is recruiting more members to join, and getting them to return.

Though nearly 1 million Geni members have created more than 10 million "profiles" of relations in their family trees on the site--not all of those people are interested in joining up. Many of them aren't alive, they're merely extensions of a living member's tree. For living relatives, then, the key is to invite them to join the site via an introductory e-mail that offers to show off a relative's tree.

"We have a good response rate to those invitations," says Sacks. "A much higher percentage actually join than other social networks. It’s a draw because not everyone wants to make a tree, but everyone wants to look at what their relatives have done."

In the past, the trick to gaining users at a genealogy site was to make the technology unintimidating to those in the 55 and older age range who are most likely to take an interest in genealogy. At Ancestry.com, about 47% of its users are 55 or older, according to Hitwise data, and the pattern is similar at Geni.

But as a slick new Flash-based site, though Geni might be intuitive to actually use, it isn't easy for Geni to introduce itself to retirees and grandparents. The site doesn't advertise, and gets much of its press attention from blogs about cutting-edge Web design. The introductions, then, must be made by the younger set, which hasn't shown a historical interest in roots discovery. Geni has an edge here over Ancestry.com, though. According to ComScore, nearly 25% of Geni's users are between 25 and 34, while only 14% of Ancestry.com's are in that group.

These demographic issues make the genealogy network business different from that of social networks, which Sacks says aren't very useful to older people. "The need we address isn't communication, but self-preservation," he says. But that doesn't stop Sacks from learning and apply the best tricks of sites like News Corp.'s,MySpace and Facebook. In coming months, Geni.com will introduce a "family news feed" page, an editable life timeline of events and a family-tree widget that embeds into any other Web site. These additions should make the site more "sticky," and give members reasons to keep returning to Geni after the first visit, according to Sacks.

These updates should also help Geni fend off the swarm of similar start-up genealogy competitors. Some of them, like Germany-based Verwandt.de, appear to follow Geni's style closely, while others offer more features such as multiple languages, integration with DNA-testing laboratories, the ability to merge related family trees and the ability to upload family files in the established genealogy file format called Gedcom.

But Geni has a lead on nearly all of these competitors in traffic and stability, says Sacks, who refers to these sites en masse as "the attack of the clones," and says that many of them can't handle complex family scenarios in their family tree software, such as step siblings, in-laws and other non-traditional family relationships. "They're not going to catch up as long as we keep innovating," Sacks declares

Last update: 31-07-2009 14:29

Bizarre Lowe's Reunion

By Grand Rapids Press, on 20-12-2007 00:00

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GRAND RAPIDS -- For years, Steve Flaig, a delivery truck driver at the Lowe's store on Plainfield Avenue, had searched for his birth mother. He found her working the cash register at the front of the store.

For several months, he and Christine Tallady had known each other casually as co-workers. Last Friday they met for the first time as mother and son.

"I have a complete family now, all my kids," said Tallady, who has two younger children. "It's a perfect time of year. It's the best Christmas present ever."

For Flaig, it was the reunion he had dreamed of for much of his 22 years. He had always known he was adopted, and his parents, Pat and Lois Flaig, who raised him since his birth, supported his decision to search for his birth mother.

It was a tough decision for Tallady, unmarried at the time, to give him up when he was born on Oct. 5, 1985, but "I wasn't ready to be a mother," she said.

"She left the adoption record open, figuring he might want to contact her someday, and she often thought of him, particularly on his birthday. But life went on. She got married, had two more kids.

Four years ago, when Flaig turned 18, he asked DA Blodgett for Children, the agency that arranged his adoption, for his background information. A couple of months later, it came, including his birth mother's name.

He searched the Internet for her address and came up empty. In October, around the time of his 22nd birthday, he took out the paperwork from DA Blodgett and realized he had been spelling his mother's surname wrong as "Talladay."

He typed "Tallady" into a search engine and came up with an address on West River Drive less than a mile from the Lowe's store.
He mentioned it to his boss, and she said, "You mean Chris Tallady, who works here?" He was stunned.

"I was like, there's no possible way," he said. "It's just such a bizarre situation." He had been working at Lowe's for two years. She was hired in April as head cashier.

Over the past two months, "I would walk by her, look at her from a distance, not knowing how to approach her," Flaig said. "You don't come stocked with information on how to deal with this."

It would seem tactless to walk up and say, "Hi, I'm Steve, your son." What if she rejected him?

Last Wednesday, on his day off, Flaig happened to be driving past the DA Blodgett offices. He decided to stop in and tell them of his find. An employee there volunteered to call Tallady for him.

Tallady, 45, was surprised to get the call at Lowe's. How did the DA Blodgett people know where she worked?

"The first thing that crossed my mind is something was wrong with him," she said.
Was he sick? Did he need a blood transfusion?

"And then she said, 'Christine, he works with you,'" Tallady recalled. "It was a shock. I started crying. I figured he would call me sometime, but not like this."

She sobbed a lot that day, tears of joy. Flaig called her later that day, and last Friday the two, who until then had occasionally said "hi" as coworkers do, met at the Cheers Good Time Saloon near the store. They hugged, sat and talked for 2 1/2 hours.

On Tuesday, they hugged again in the store where both were working the day shift. They know their paths must have crossed many times. Both graduated from Northview schools. Both attended St. Jude's Catholic
Church.

"We both hate olives, both love roller coasters," Tallady said.

Flaig hasn't decided whether to search now for his birth father. He's anxious to meet Tallady's other two children, Brandon, 10, and Alexandra, 12. Her husband, Dale, out of town on business, wants to be there when they meet, maybe this weekend.

"My husband is wonderful," Tallady said. "He wants it to be a whole family thing."

Last update: 31-07-2009 14:31

Genetic Genealogy Timeline

By geneticgenealogist.com, on 14-12-2007 23:00

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Genealogists spend many of their days (and much of their money!) tracking the history of their ancestors. They hunt through ancient records to elucidate even the smallest clue as to some facet of their ancestors’ lives. Since the majority of genetic genealogists started their journey as traditional genealogists, it is only natural that they enjoy record-keeping and tracking as well.

The DNA Genealogy Timeline is a free public resource maintained by Georgia K. Bopp and hosted by Rootsweb,now part of Ancestry.com using a subdomain address. The timeline attempts to track the significant developments associated with genetic genealogy. It begins with “Before 1980″ and was updated most recently as of October 2007.

What immediately stands out is that genetic genealogy has been around much longer than people realize, especially given the recent media attention. I began my exploration of genetic genealogy in 2003, but by 2000 there were already as many as 4 surname projects begun by hobbyists! As of September 2007, one company Family Tree DNA had over 4,200 surname projects that contained more than 66,000 surnames. There are even more surname projects hosted by other companies, including Heritage DNA .

The timeline also shows that genetic genealogy was first developed by geneticists and anthropologists to analyze a wide variety of problems facing researchers. The technology was later embraced by genealogists who saw that it could be used to answer some of the problems faced by other genealogists.

As the introduction states:

“This Timeline began when I could not find an informal context - a simple history - to use when called upon to explain the new field of DNA and genealogy to those who knew less about it than I (a beginner in October 2002 - and not a scientist). This contains items I’ve found as well as contributions by others, primarily Ann P. Turner and participants of the RootsWeb GENEALOGY-DNA discussion list and members of the isogg.og

This is a great resource, and I’m thankful that Ms. Bopp has made it freely available to all. The site mentions that corrections and additions to the timeline are welcome.

Last update: 31-07-2009 14:30

Old New Brunswick History

By M. O'Brien, on 10-12-2007 00:22

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Everyone living in Fredericton North knows of the "stone bridge" which spans the Nashwaaksis Stream at the intersection of Main Street, Sunset Drive and the Royal Road.

(Road was given the order to build by Lieut.
Governor Archibald Campbell)

The existence of a small wooden bridge in the mid 1800's is noted in the history books. At the time, there was a large gristmill owned by the Thompson gamily, and that "Y" junction of the aforementioned three roads was known as "Thompson's Mill". In 1895, the original wooden bridge was pronounced inadequate for the traffic that went over it. In the spring of 1895, tenders were called for a new bridge. The structure was to be two spans in length one of which would be covered, a great improvement over the existing bridge which like the one today was wide open to the weather. Why these bridges were covered is hard to tell, but it seems logical to assume that the covering served as a shelter against the weather, which could cause the wooden bridge to deteriorate.

The Nashwaaksis Bridge was opened in the summer of 1895. But something was missing, and that was a sidewalk for people on foot. It would be hard for anyone to walk, especially ladies in long trailing skirts, in the wake of the horse drawn carts and their trail of dung. It was 35 years later that the Province finally listened to the petitions of Nashwaaksis people and they got their sidewalk. On May 21, 1930, it was finally built on the "downstream" side of the bridge. There is an interesting fact about the bridge and the sidewalk. In 1895 it cost the Province $1,600 to build the bridge. In 1930 it cost $550 just to build the sidewalk. Inflation was rearing its ugly head even in those days!

The Nashwaaksis Bridge withstood many freshets and ice jams in the following years, but the year 1936 saw its demise. In the great floods and heavy ice that took out the railway bridge at Fredericton, the swollen Nashwaaksis overwhelmed the little bridge and swept it away. This was a real disaster, for the Nashwaaksis Covered Bridge was a very important link between the people upriver and the City of Fredericton. In those days, there were no bridges crossing the St. John River until one reached Woodstock. As soon as the floods subsided, immediate steps were taken by the province to replace it. A temporary bridge was put in place, somewhat lower than the original, to allow traffic to continue on its way. The next year, 1937, saw the building of the present lovely Stone Bridge, fortunately with an allowance for a sidewalk on the "down stream" side.

The sidewalk may have been adequate at the time, but not for long. It was very narrow, and pedestrians found themselves literally inches from the nearby passing motor vehicles. The present day "arched' sidewalk on the "upstream" side was constructed in the early 1990's.

This structure served as a hangout for my age group in the early 1970's. It was the height of "coolness" to sit on the side of bridge facing towards all of the nearby passing cars. This however soon became passé as we moved on to other locals, and the younger teenagers abandoned the bridge to "hang out" in the nearby Royal Road Park.

So there you have it, the history of our charming bridge. It may not be as "storied" as the Brooklyn or Golden Gate Bridges, but it's ours!

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Last update: 31-07-2009 14:27

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