Alright folks, today is the big day! Are you ready to install TNG? I do have to warn you, you will have to have some kind of webhosting. If you haven’t found one yet, you just have to be sure that they support PHP and MySQL, and if you’re paying for a webhost that doesn’t support them, you should probably switch. There are great options. I use Dreamhost, but have used others in the past. I believe Darrin has some recommedations at the TNG website, so check those out if you haven’t already!
Before we start, other then webhosting you will need at least one other program for installing. If you want to delve into customization, then I recommend a second program also for editing. We aren’t going to get into that today though. Today is just the nuts and bolts of getting TNG installed for the first time.
The program you’ll definitely need is an FTP program. I currently use FileZilla, but there are many free FTP programs out there that work just the same. If you’ve set up a webhost, they should have sent you a login for an FTP program.
To start my re-design, I have to first lay ground work. Since I have an existing website, it’s important that I think about what works about the website and what doesn’t. This way I can be aware of issues as I enter the design process. If you don’t have an existing website or aren’t looking to delve into the design from scratch aspect, then you won’t need as much planning. I still think it’s beneficial to know what you want out of your website before you jump into one.
In my case, I was hand coding my whole family tree before I stumbled across the TNG Sitebuilding software. When this software was shown to me, I knew it was exactly what I was looking for. I’ve been using it ever since and in 2010, I added this blog.
The first part of my planning stage involves sketching out the basic design on the website. I usually like to go in knowing where things will go, but I’m always flexible. There is a 99% chance something will have to be moved around. This is not the first draft of my re-design. I’ve re-designed it twice already, and had to change it twice because of a cluttered design. My design sketch might not make much sense to others, but it does to me. I know that I like the effect of a banner at the top and the buttons underneath.
On my current design, the TNG menu is only visible from the moore-mays.org main site and disappears from the left once you click on the blog. Then the same happens with the blog, but on the right side. My new goal for the redesign is to trim down the two menus and have one column on the right or left side (see I’m flexible!) with just the important, most used, items. I also don’t want the wall of text that I currently have on the blog menus, so I want to break it up a little bit with small logos for GeneaBloggers and a few other things I haven’t determined yet.
The biggest thing I want to happen is a smoother integration of TNG and WordPress. There are WordPress and TNG plugins that will integrate the programs, but I’ve never tried them. So I’m going to make fresh installs of both programs and test it out before I incorporate it in the new site. If I can get them to work the way I want to, then I’ll use them, if not, then I won’t. Either way, I’ll document the process.
After the sketch, I had to decide which things I would be putting in the menus on the side. You have to think about what links people will be using the most and which ones you yourself will be using the most. Don’t think about this website as just a memo you’re sending into the world wide web. My genealogy website is a fully functioning tool. I use the TNG database on a daily basis and the blog serves as a research diary for me. I’m not always so good about keeping a research log. Though I am getting better! The one thing I almost always do though, is blog about what I’m currently doing with my tree.
For me, when I started the blog, I had no idea what genealogy blogs encompassed. I just wanted to find a way to interact with my long lost family members who stumble into the website, and it’s a great way of sharing stories and photos with my family who live in other states.
So do you have a website planned out? Are you a fly by the seat of your pants person? I’m a little bit of both. I think it keeps me the right levels of flexible yet structured. Feel free to follow this ongoing saga and comment with your plans, suggestions, links, etc! I’ll try and respond back. Sometimes I get a little shy about what to say, but I’m getting better at that too! ;p
I’m not sure how fast this process will go, so if you’re in a rush, this might not be the follow along for you. There are great resources on TNG like a forum and wiki!
Like many genealogists stuck at home, I’ve been watching what I can of Roots Tech from my computer screen. It’s been fun, inspiring and distracting in all the best ways. Sure my laundry is a little behind but that’s alright, I’m sure my family has plenty of clean clothes still. I think.. ha!
One of the big hits coming out of Roots Tech is the huge exposure given to the TNG website software. If you’ve read this blog for awhile, you’ll know that I love TNG and I’ve been using it for years and years. As early as 2008 I think. I’d have to double check. I really want to say I was a version 6 user and the 9th version is just being released. So it’s been awhile.
Design Sketch
With all this new exposure, there are bound to be a thousand new questions. I’ve decided that I’m going to do a special project here on my blog. One of my goals is to get this website redesign done for good by the end of the year. In order to help myself along with that goal, I will be writing blogs about my progress. It makes me more motivated to sit down and do this if I’m documenting the progress. I love documenting everything I do for some strange reason. ;p
This redesign is going to encompass a lot more then what I was originally planning to do. I intend to walk through and document the process of getting TNG and WordPress installed on my own domain. Integrating them, all the things everyone would like to do but thinks they can’t. I’m here to tell you, you can! I’m going to walk through the process with you. I’ll document my trials and tribulations or as I call them “misadventures”. If you look at my current website design, there are plenty of flaws that I’m eager to fix, and I can’t wait to bring others along in the journey!
Yes I’ve already got my website software installed and ready to go, but this installation has been around for many years, especially TNG. Which means there are plenty more advancements in technology since I originally started. I plan to do tutorials for different things once the site is set up. Some of the things I plan to highlight is the transfer of your GEDCOM file from your software to TNG. I’ll show tips and tricks to the software and the little quirks.
I know the big question will be am I qualified to write these tutorials? Well that’s not a question I can answer for you. Everything I’ve learned has been through trial and error. I’ve had things break completely, I’ve had things work wonderfully. I’m just a regular girl who likes to mess around with websites and genealogy. I’m not stuffy and I definitely don’t mind admitting that I could use more then a few classes in genealogy and web design. Until I can save up some money though, it’s time for me to teach myself a little bit more! All these lessons I learn I’ll document here with links back to everything I’ve found and utilized!
It’s time to dissect what sends people to my blog! This is always fun to see. Sometimes it’s so completely random what can bring someone to this blog.
newark evening news archives
Believe it or not, my transcriptions of some articles from the Newark Evening News is my most popular search term referrer. If you’re looking for actual Newark Evening News articles, you’ll need to head to the New Jersey Archives or the Newark Public Library.
bartholomew taylor
Bartholomew is one of my most popular searches and the most “famous” relative I have. He was a Revolutionary War veteran and moved from Somerset County, Maryland to Bracken County, Kentucky. You can read some of my entries that mention Bartholomew here on the blog until I get him added back into my website database.
moore family + florence redford
This is one of the new search terms this month. Florence Redford is my Grandmother. To see her ancestry, you can view my database on the website or read blog entries about the Redford Family.
taylor clan map
I haven’t posted anything about a clan map, but that’s because I haven’t looked for one yet either. Since I don’t have a clue where exactly my Taylor family originates from yet (England most likely, but no proof!), I can’t actually pinpoint where to look for a clan map at. There is a little bit of information on some Scottish Taylors, but even those mention that the name is very widespread.
newark evening news, oct 27 1923
Here’s where two worlds collide and send someone to my blog. I have a few transcriptions from the Newark Evening News on the blog but they are from 1890. I also have my “Diary of Llewellyn” series which chronicles my Great-Grandmother’s life in 1923 through to 1926. So I can’t help with whatever might have sent someone looking for that particular paper. I will however suggest you check out fultonhistory.com. Newark is so close to New York City, if you’re looking for a specific mention of something it just might be able to be found in a New York City newspaper!
These are only a few of the search terms that have sent people to my blog. If you’re here for any of these reasons I hope I helped a little bit. If you need to contact me about more information on the families I feature, you can email me at leeny.moore[@]gmail.com <– Just remember to remove the brackets! Sorry for the precaution, but spam drives me bonkers!
It’s rare when I’m only doing one thing while on the computer. It’s impossible for me to sit still and just do one thing. I’ve been a little tired of following some of my collateral lines on down the tree, so I decided to start working on getting my files synced again. I was supposed to do this as I went, but eventually it proved to be too much for me. So I just concentrated on my FTM file since that’s what I’m most comfortable with.
The good news is that I’m making progress while I watch the UK version of Who Do You Think You Are? from the beginning… again.
The bad news, I think I’m going to change the way I enter my census citations in FTM. It was a question of when and not if I’d change something in the new, improved file. As I looked through some printed source reports, I didn’t like how the census sources were showing up. So I’m going to change it up a bit as I “sync” my files. As I go through this, I sometimes wonder why I don’t just fix the Original family file I had instead of continuously changing the new one. However, I’m getting so close to being done with the new file, so I’m just forging ahead and not letting myself think that way. It’s hard to stay with it when the Mays/Slusher/Click/Whitt families had 10-15 children and then those children had 10-15 children. It ends up being a very long, tedious process. I keep telling myself it’ll be worth it in the end though!
It’ll be nice to have a file that is correct, and that I know where the information came from. Once that’s done it’ll be time to start planning research trips! If only I lived closer to where my ancestors lived it would be day trips and not hoping for time during the summer!
Since it is so hard to communicate through blog comments when you are trying to get your point across, I’m putting this post up to show what I get when I try to import a GEDCOM file into my copy of Family Tree Maker 2012. I’m just trying to help the information process, so that everyone involved can get a better picture of what is happening. Poor Russ Worthington is trying to help, but is probably more frustrated then anyone involved.
I didn’t even realize I had this issue, until I was reading my blog reader this morning and stumbled across Randy Seaver’s ongoing “adventures”. This is basically me saying, “ME TOO!”
Now comes the hard decision. Do I use it for strictly family or do I use it for something else. Which by the way, only has 2 people so far. My long lost very helpful cousin, Grace and my big brother… who has been on Google+ for eight years already… Okay so that was an exaggeration. It’s not like yoau don’t know that when you read my blog. My brother is a computer guru, and I think he knows people at Google or Google tried to hire him once, something like that. He’s also the genius who when I complained about a frequent crashing of my family tree program, he answered “So write your own.” Yeah. Like that was gonna happen computer guru.
Anyway, this isn’t a post about my genius computer guru brother. He doesn’t read my blog anyway. He does visit the website though, and he pays for the domain, but that’s more like a history of the website story there.
I like the idea of using my Google+ as a genealogy networking thing that can eventually incorporate my family in also. However I was a little concerned that Google suggested I add Paris Hilton to my circle. It’s not like I have anything against Paris Hilton, because I certainly don’t. I love watching her aunts on The Real Housewives, I just don’t want to have her in my circle.
I know most have had this for awhile now. Either I’m slow to catch up to things or Google didn’t think I was cool enough to have it yet. The point is, I have it now, and I want to use it! So if you get some crazy lady adding you to her circle. That’s just me, adding everyone to my Google+ circle. Now excuse me while I go pretty up my profile with things like words!
I am adapting my blog writing habits. Obviously what I was previously doing wasn’t working because I have slowed down considerably. I am not a stay at home mother, but technically I am. (Don’t you love how that works). I’m home all day taking care of the laundry, the dishes, cooking breakfast and lunch, watching The Price is Right with Grandpa, and whatever else may pop up from 7am through whenever I’m no longer needed. So now I am taking these quiet moments when the house is asleep or almost asleep, and I’m answering emails and writing in my blog.
I want to finally finish re-organizing my ‘To Be Sorted’ folders on my second hard drive. Right now I have a folder of Mays photos, a folder of Moore photos, a folder of scanned photos and a folder of tombstones to be sorted into my 2010 filing system. (Hopefully it’s my final filing system!) To be completely honest, I’ve been horrible and haven’t touched my ‘To Be Sorted’ folder at all since the last update. Oh gosh, what is my malfunction!
I want to have the whole Mays side of my family entered into my website and both FTM and RootsMagic. This is a big feat, since I’m behind on my RootsMagic work and there are a lot of Mays family members. I’m pretty sure getting a RootsMagic file together is on the back burner for now. I’m mainly just entering people in manually so that I can have the ID numbers be the same, but my Family Tree Maker file is getting closer. The website is in progress at the same time as my Family Tree Maker file, with some small exceptions that I bookmarked in FTM. So that’s going as well as it can be. I’m determined now that the summer is over and the hurricane is passed, I will work at least three times a week on this.
Online Genealogy Goals
Order at least 4 microfilm from the Family History Center. I’m hoping for one a quarter. I keep talking myself out of it because I want to get the most bang for my buck, so to speak. Enough of that! Time to get on with it! I still haven’t ordered any.
Record Ordering Goals
I want to obtain the marriage certificate for William and Llewellyn. (I have notations of the date in Llewellyn’s records and a newspaper announcement, but I would like a copy of the actual certificate)
I would like to find the death certificate of Robert J Moore. (Brooklyn has no record of his death in 1925, so my next search would be Caldwell, NJ)
I have a copy of Llewellyn‘s birth certificate but it might be in New York at my Aunt Diane’s house. I’ll have to ask Uncle Chris about it in July.
Order death certificates for Lewis and Jennie Thorward.
I am going to be ordering the first certificate this week. The birth certificate is not in New York (apparently), so it must be lost somewhere. Unfortunately, this means I’ll have to order it and hope they can find it. I do know her name wasn’t on my copy of the certificate, so I’m hoping this is possible. I didn’t make it to New Jersey for many reasons, and so that’s no longer a hold out for me. Hopefully Caldwell or it’s records aren’t under water after the hurricane.
General Goals
BE MORE ORGANIZED! I ordered a copy of Elyse Doerflinger‘s Conquering the Paper Monster ebook and I plan to put it to use in the new year! With all that’s been going on in the last few months, I just haven’t had the time to touch my archives. I’m usually very good about starting and finishing big projects, it’s just I need a guideline sometimes. DONE. I am so organized it’s not even funny. My system is working beautifully and I know where to find everything when I need it. The only project left is to get my computer files finished.
Website Goals
Don’t break the site! I’ve had a horrible habit of breaking the genealogy software on my website. Usually because I mess around with it too much. I think I’ve learned enough through trial and horrible errors to successfully keep this goal! DONE. I am still working on the new website but I’m pretty sure I won’t break the main site since I refuse to mess with it until the new site is done and beta tested.
Okay, so now I’m off to print out some order forms for the records I want to order. I’m going to fill them out and place them in my outgoing folder so I can do one at a time as I get some extra money.
The great news is that picture was taken the day after Irene hit and as of today, that pole has been fixed! We had to take a ride around the county today to check out the school bus routes. My mother’s was fine, but we took backroads on the way home and it looks like a war zone back there!
I’m very fortunate to live on the highway, so I have power and internet again. However there are many in the area who are going to be without for a while yet. We’re loaning out our generator and helping all we can and I encourage anyone who lives in an affected area to do the same. You’d be surprised at how much a hot meal or a hot shower can help people who are displaced or without power still. We were even debating making a big pot of chili and taking it out to the work crews. It’s a mess out there and they have some long, dangerous hours ahead of them.
I’m going to get back into my daily grind in a bit, but I wanted to take some time out to let everyone know how we fared!
