Roots and Me: Getting My Genealogy On-Line

Roots and Me: Getting My Genealogy On-Line Roots and Me: Getting My Genealogy On-Line

Roxanne Munns

LAGS, March 22, 2005

Rootsweb.com - A good place to start! (FREE)

WorldConnect - Learn how to generate a GEDCOM with your genealogy software. Upload at: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/

Message Boards - http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/script/main/rw

Surnames and Localities, post to BOTH! You may post pictures as an attachment.

Mailing Lists - http://lists.rootsweb.com/

Surnames and Localities, check out both - many local genealogists help with lookups on these lists.

Freepages - Up to 4 Mb of storage for a webpage. Big enough to host a webpage, unless you have some very large image files.

You may set up a webpage anywhere - on Rootsweb, with your local ISP, but first you need to learn a little bit about webpages!

I learned HTML coding from:

PageTutor:, http://www.pagetutor.com/pagetutor/makapage/index.html (on-line) or http://www.pagetutor.com/download.html (download).

If you go through these lessons, you have a very good basis to complete your very own webpage.

There are many ways to write HTML, and most are completely free. The tutorial above recommends Notepad, which is probably already on your computer. I use the freeware version of Stone's WebWriter:

http://www.webwriter.dk/english/index.htm. There are many others available. It is NOT recommended to use Composer, Front Page, or other "automatic" web authoring tools. There are limitations to these software programs that makes it difficult to get your webpage to look exactly like you would like them - and they also "bloat" the code with excess programming. Thus, you use up more of your webspace with useless code, rather than another picture or more information.

You will also need to learn how to transfer your files from your computer, out into cyberspace. Rootsweb provides an on-line service to their own servers, so if you're hosting a webpage on Rootsweb's Freepages, you may use their On-line Editor at: https://support.rootsweb.com/FAQ/fpindex.html. If you're using your own ISP, you will probably have to purchase an FTP program - I use Ipswitch's WS_FTP program.

Once your webpage is up (whether on Rootsweb or elsewhere), make sure to register your webpage on Rootsweb for more people to find you! https://sites.rootsweb.com/~websites/register.html. I would also recommend registering your webpage with the search engines, especially if it's not hosted at Rootsweb (i.e. http://www.google.com/addurl/?hl=en&continue=/addurl).

If you are interested in the webpages that I have learned to do, (and I have not used any other sources for my learning), go to:

http://www.masterharper.com (Family webpage)

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~munns/ (Family Genealogy Webpage)

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~wilacgs (LAGS website)

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~wistcroi (St. Croix County WIGenWeb page)

A Simple Webpage

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE></TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
</BODY>
</HTML>

This would be a completely blank webpage - no title, nothing showing on the page. But, once you save it as a .htm file and download it to the web, it would be accessible on-line (but blank).

Please add a title between <TITLE> and </TITLE>. Something like <TITLE>Munns Family Page</TITLE>. This shows up in the upper left corner of your browser's window, and also prints out if someone else decides to keep your information.

You add all of the information that you want seen on your webpage between <BODY> and </BODY>. Text is quite simple - just type. However, if you want a page return, like THIS:

You would need to add at that point. If you want a paragraph-type layout, use and with all of the sentences in between those two tags. If you would like to format your webpage with backgrounds, centered lines, right- or left-justified text, bold or italicized text, etc., I will leave you to learn from the tutorial.

Quite often, you'd like to add interest by including images (pictures). If you want to just add decoration to your webpage, use the command

Make sure that you have downloaded FILE NAME to the web server - otherwise you will see a "X" icon when viewing the page. If you would rather have a link to a picture, use

<A HREF="FILE NAME">Description</A>.

If you have not downloaded FILE NAME to the web server, you will get a "Error - File Not Available" message when you click on it. FILE NAME must include the three letter extension, such as .gif or .jpg.

Much of the genealogical information that LAGS has included on its website is in a table form. If you have a little of general information you'd like to share, tables are one of the best and easiest to read. They are also somewhat tedious, depending on the size of your table.

<TABLE>

<TR>

<TD>Munns</TD>

<TD>Robert</TD>

<TD>Angelica, Alleghany Co., NY</TD>

<TD>Fennimore, Grant Co., WI</TD>

</TR>

</TABLE>

These tags will give you a table that is one row down, and six columns across. ("Munns Robert b. 23 Dec 1811 Angelical, Alleghany Co., NY d. 09 Apr 1884 Fennimore, Grant Co., WI"). You would keep repeating the <TR> to </TR> format (with the other information) for larger tables. You may include links within a table. So, if I have a picture of Robert Munns, I would <TD><A HREF="RobertMunns.jpg">Robert</A></TD>, and the link would appear blue on my webpage. People would know there is a link there, and would just click to reach the image file.

There are lots of ways to add features to your webpage (counter, guestbook, etc.). Most of the "features" just take cutting and pasting codes into your webpage. For further information, check out https://support.rootsweb.com/FAQ/fpindex.html.

Actual Examples of Webpages
LAGS Index page:

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE>La Crosse Area Genealogical Society</TITLE>

</HEAD>

</frameset>

</HTML>

LAGS Upcoming Events Page:

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE>Upcoming Events</TITLE>

</HEAD>

<h1 align="center">La Crosse Area Genealogical Society</h1>

Upcoming Events!

March 22, 2005 Our monthly meeting will be at 7pm at the La Crosse Public Library. Our speaker will be Roxanne Munns. Her topic is "Roots and Me: How to Get My Genealogy On-Line"

April 29 - 30, 2005 Wisconsin State Genealogical Society's Gene-A-Rama 2005 will be at the La Crosse Center. Check out <A HREF="https://sites.rootsweb.com/~wsgs/meetings.htm">their website</A> for more details.

These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in this format for profit or presentation. This includes linking to this site using frames, by any other organization or persons without the written and posted permission from this site's Coordinator(s).

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~wilacgs

Last updated 24.2.2005

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