FAMNET/NZGDB

Pub Charity continues to genorously support our activities with a grant towards our Branch membership of FamNet. This, and additional donations from Members, have enabled us to accept a negotiated 2 year subscription to FamNet and to assist in the further development of the facility

Your committee negotiated this access on the basis that it provides yet another resource for members, in much the same way that you can use findmypast.com, ancestry.com and many other sites at our research centre. The advantage with FamNet is that you can work from your computer at home. A separate note has already been sent to all members with more details.

Our agreement with FamNet provides members of the Kapiti Branch of The New Zealand Society of Genealogists with FamNet membership until 29 July 2012.

NZDGB, which is part of FamNet, is a data base of family trees and you have the option of contributing your own and collaborating on ancestors shared with other trees. FamNet will grow over time as more data is added. It also allows links between members through website hosting, newsletters, mail lists, information exchange, blogs and discussion groups. It will host an increasing range of databases. A number of family history groups have recently joined or are in the pipeline and we are currently the largest. We hope to use this facility for a range of interactive branch related information exchange and calendar activity.

From time to time a newsletter will be published, bringing you up to date with new developments, sites you can access for further information and FAQs. As is normal practice there will be an unsubscribe option.

Lyn Lee, a branch committee member in Waikanae, has been appointed as Administrator of the scheme. She will be the point of contact between the Branch and FamNet and any enquiries or requests for assistance should be directed through her at [email protected].

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1) What is FamNet/New Zealand Genealogical Database (NZGDB)
2) Logon details
3) Notes for people sharing email addresses
4) Notes for existing subscribers
5) Some pointers about publishing your family tree with NZGDB
6) Contribute data
We hope that you will enjoy, and use, this new resource.

1) What is FamNet/NZGDB
The best introduction is actually on the site itself.
http://famnet.org.nz
Log in (see below) and explore.

2) Logon details:
The main address is
http://famnet.org.nz/
from which you can access both the databases of information available
(FamNet) and the online family trees (NZGDB).
Links to both are in the left hand menu.
You are registered under the email address we, Kapiti
Genealogy, have for you. A two year subscription has been applied (no
payment is required, this is from the Pub Charity Grant, and the
donations received).

Your initial log on is your email address.

If an existing subscriber, simply continue using the system as usual.

If this is your introduction to FamNet/NZGDB:
Go to
http://famnet.org.nz
Enter your email address, and select Forgotten Password.
Your password will be emailed to you.
(If you select New User it will be detected that you already exist and
ask you to login instead).

Once logged in you can, and should, change your password.
You also have the option of creating an easier to remember logon to use
instead of your email address.
See the left hand menu for the options to do so
(Edit your profile/Change password respectively)

3) Notes for people sharing email addresses
If you are one of our members sharing an email address, at the moment,
only one user has been set up.
Should you wish to control access to these facilities individually it is
suggested that you may wish to explore the free email address facilities
offered by such providers as gmail.
Alternate email addresses can be very useful, and accessible via the
internet from anywhere.
(The google accounts that come with a gmail address have a number of
very useful free facilities available with them, eg an ability to saving
favourite places on maps).

Let Lyn know if you both wish to access FamNet/NZGDB independently so
that your subscription can be applied to your new email address.

4) Notes for existing subscribers
If you are one of our members already registered with FamNet or NZGDB,
your subscription should have automatically had 2 years added to the
current expiry date.
If however, you are registered under a different email to that with the
branch, we need to know your other email address in order to apply the
subscription credit correctly.
Let Lyn know the details.

5) Some pointers about publishing your family tree with NZGDB
One of the main benefits of NZGDB is the ability to share your family
tree online, find others researching the same families, and even link
your tree to others so that data is not duplicated.
This latter is particularly useful when several of you are researching
the same area, and you know that a person who married into your tree
appears in other trees with a lot of data on their ancestry.
Simply go to that person, chose update, find the appropriate parents in
the other tree and assign them to yours.
The genealogy charts available will now show your data linked to the
other tree - but still totally under your control.

You can also give fellow researchers permission to update people in your
tree.
Again, all of this is totally under your own control, with strict
privacy settings on living people.

6) Contribute data
FamNet is in its infancy.
It will only grow if people consider contributing data.
If you have a database that may be of interest to others, consider
sharing it via FamNet.
Access to such contributed databases is entirely under your control, and
may be open to the general public, or limited to specific people or
groups.

Your contact point for this resource is Lyn Lee
Email: [email protected]