Sharing Photos of Ancestors Online

Recently, I read an article on The Legacy Tree Blog called How Do You Feel About Sharing Photos of Your Ancestors? and watched a video about privatizing photos on Ancestry.

Reading and watching these made me reflect on my views.


1. I am very protective of personal family photos.

The author of this article is Marian Pierre-Louis. She mentions in the article that she was very protective of her ancestors' portraits. There is something about a photo that can evoke so much emotion in you. Putting a name with a face is an indescribable feeling - for me at least.


As I research my ancestors' lives and uncover their stories, I feel a connection between them. This adds to the protection.



2. I am willing to share photos with cousins.

As genealogists and family historians, we want to connect with cousins. Photos are one way to receive cousin bait.



3. Copyright Issues+ Watermarking

While I am no expert in ethical and legal issues, copyright is still a big component of this topic. (I will leave it up to The Legal Genealogist). Some may be okay with people using their ancestors' photos without permission as others are not. 


That's why it is important to be mindful of where you put family photos are on the Internet.


A watermark is a transparent text Adding a watermark can redirect those back to the original owner.


4. Putting Photos in My Tree


I started a new tree in January of this year because I wanted to start fresh and have a well-documented tree.



I thought about putting family photos in my messy tree and privatizing them, but if I change my mind in the future how would I transfer photos from my "old" tree to my new tree?


I will have to continue to think about this.



5. Living People+ The Recently Deceased



If someone asks to see a photo of a living person, you should ask that person to give consent to be shown online or offline.

For those who have recently passed away,  contact family to gain permission to post them.

What are your views on posting photos online? Leave a comment below.


Thanks for reading,

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun- Share a Childhood Memory

It's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun! 

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to:

1)  Have you written your memoirs yet?  If so, please share with us one story from your childhood.  If not, then start your memoirs!   The story could be a memory of your family life, your schoolwork, your neighborhood, etc.  It doesn't have to be a certain length - just something you recall.

2)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook.  Be sure to leave a link to your work as a comment to this post. 


Annual Turkey Trot


Every year, in elementary school, there was a Turkey Trot. It happened a few days-generally on a Wednesday, which is a half-day for us. Every grade level ( K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) goes outside during a specific time. When it was our time to go, we would leave the classroom and go to the basketball area. Each class would line up in a single file line. 


To warm-up, we did exercises like jumping jacks, lunges, and stretches. After that, we did the chicken dance. Our school principal or assistant principal had a chicken costume on and danced along with us. It was always fun to do this yearly.  Each class would get called out one by one to start running. I am not very fond of running- never was and probably never will. This likely contributed to the competition of students wanting to always win. 


But during that time, it wasn't a big deal as we were just having fun. Parents could also attend. My mom came a few times, which was always nice.

Thanks for reading,

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun- Your "Favorite" Genealogy Websites

It's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun! 

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to:

1)   What are your "Favorite" genealogy websites?  What ones do you have in your web browser "Bookmarks" or "Favorites" bar or listing?

2)  Please list them in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link to your work in a comment on this post.

Perhaps we can help each other, and our readers, find some new resources!

I usually bookmark blog posts to read or look at later and resources included in them as well.


I usually go on these sites just about everyday.

Ancestry.com

FamilySearch.org (indexing, wiki, catalog, records, learning center)

Google.com (search, sheets, books, docs, drive, Gmail)

Twitter.com 

Facebook.com 
Legacy Family Tree Webinars
HathiTrust
Google Books
Blogger (blog posts, and blog feed)
FindmyPast

If I am working in a specific locality, I go to my locality guide that I created and use the following links that I need.

I found this website, Libraries.org, which is an international directory of all libraries in the world in my bookmarks. I forget I even had it.

I don't always bookmark websites because if I remember what called, all I need to do is to start typing in the address bar and it will usually show when you hover over the name of the URL.

I wrote a blog post about organizing your bookmarks. If you are interested, check it out. 

Thanks for reading,