Just about a week ago, I gave a presentation for the Middle Tennessee Genealogical Society on Surname and One-Place Studies. It was so enjoyable! Everyone had good questions to ask and I myself even used it to kickstart me with one of my own surname studies.
For many years now, I’ve led a genealogy project to research Koonce families across the country. I also do a surname research project on the Vanderbilt family and FINALLY built my Vanderbilt Surname Genealogy Project site with the Guild of One-Name Studies.
My interest in the family stems from my employer and my obsession with the Biltmore Estate. At the time I started the surname project, I was not able to locate much about the genealogy of the family, so I started it on my own. I have a blog I’ve posted too off and on over the years also, though, not often.
Since I am a member of the Guild, I am able to have this site hosted by them as part of my membership, and should something ever happen to me, the Guild will preserve the site in perpetuity as long as the organization exists. They’ve been around 40+ years now so that’s a pretty good track record. Also, the genealogical data I have on the site is regularly added to the FamilySearch Genealogies Pedigree collection under a group designation specifically for Guild-member trees. How’s that for preservation!
The site is built with TNG: The Next Generation of Genealogy Site-Building. I’ve been a long-time fan of this software and have been using it as part of my family tree strategy for about 16 years. It provides many features and is unparalleled as a web-based genealogy software program.
Some of the features I particularly appreciate:
- the What’s New section that allows site visitors to see what I’ve recently updated
- the Calendar allows the option to view events on any given day or month
- easy to run reports, such as this register of the first 4 generations of descendants of Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt
- individual page profiles allow for easy integration of media files (example: Marjorie Lila Field Wilde)
- integration of maps, such as this one for Church Hill Cemetery in Berkshire County, Massachusetts
- beautiful media pages and I can include transcriptions too (example)
There are so many more features and I could go on and on. The website experience is easy for sharing with others and as I just polled in my Facebook group I run, the Academy of Legacy Leaders™ the benefits of having online trees are many!
When it comes to my workflow, I use RootsMagic to build the tree and I upload my GEDCOM to the TNG site for display. I then add media files (extracted from my digital photo home hub of course) and use a few other TNG-specific features. Using my GEDCOM makes it so easy to keep the site updated and not do repetitive work.
I am so glad I finally set this up – now I will more easily be able to share my Vanderbilt research with others and continue to get the information out there!
P.S. – if you are interested in seeing a recording of my presentation, comment here or send me an email to ask for the link!
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