Live Roots Update

Live Roots Genealogy Search Provider Now Available

2010-02-14T11:01:00.005-05:00

Would you like to be able to search Live Roots regardless of where you may have browsed to on the Internet? You're probably familiar with that small search box in the upper right corner of your browser; well that's called the Search Provider box, and additional search engines can be added. Yesterday, I created the XML file necessary to add Live Roots to that search box area. Click here to add the Live Roots search provider. Once added, you can select Live Roots and initiate a search at any time, from anywhere!

Live Roots Adds Access to FamilySearch Record Search Results

2010-02-09T19:03:00.004-05:00

You can now view results from the Record Search pilot from within the Live Roots search experience. The FamilySearch Record Search pilot include millions of indexed records, and is expanding each month. When you perform a search in Live Roots, you will see a link to the FamilySearch Record Search feature in the "Available Partner Services" section. You also have the ability to search a specific collection within the Record Search pilot from the corresponding resource page. Resources from the pilot are cataloged in Live Roots as soon as they are posted online.

Find more Surnames... phonetically speaking, that is,

2010-01-29T19:59:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year, everyone. 2010 is off to a great start, as more genealogical resources continue to be added to the Live Roots catalog every week. Today, I rewrote the Surname Results section of the search engine to be more efficient and to expand upon the phonetic algorithm used to display alternate spellings of the surnames you searched for. Prior to this update, the search engine only offered a single alternative per surname, however, now the system will attempt to offer multiple. This is especially helpful when searching through older documents where phonetic spellings of names were more common.

Over 2,300 Genealogy Resources Cataloged into Live Roots

2009-10-02T18:04:00.002-04:00

Another busy week, as we've added the following collections to the Live Roots catalog: British Newspapers (1800-1900), Ericson Books, Boyd Publishing, the Berlin Area Historical Society, and author, Dr. George K. Schweitzer. The July and August updates for the BYU-Family History Archive were also added.

Digging Deeper for Genealogical Gems

2009-09-21T15:58:00.002-04:00

This week the individual titles included in Ancestry's U.S. Obituary Collection were cataloged (AND geocoded) into Live Roots, making it easier to locate location specific resources in this collection of over 20 million obituaries from more than 3,000 newspapers. Also, the unique Lost Faces collection of vintage family photograph albums was cataloged--over 60 albums of identified family photos and growing. You are now able to Follow/Share/etc. the geographic locations in the Navigate feature. And lastly (yes, it's been a busy week already), several dozen postcard images were added to the Live Roots collection. Postcards are a great resource for being able to see the buildings of the institutions our ancestors may have (sometimes involuntarily) attended.

More Genealogy Publishers Added to Live Roots

2009-09-17T00:19:00.004-04:00

Today catalogs were added from the following groups: Picton Press, Broadfoot Publishing, Arphax Publishing, GoldBug Maps, [Loyalist, Paul] Bunnell Genealogy Books, Gorin Genealogical Publishing and IllinoisHistory.com. In addition, this week I've fixed close to 500 broken links (mainly sites that have left rootsweb.com, aol.com, compuserve.com and/or geocities.com).

Roots Television Interview about Live Roots

2009-09-01T12:57:00.003-04:00

Roots Television has released a video interview about Live Roots, featuring Illya D'Addezio, President and Founder of Genealogy Today. In this video, Matthew Poe talks with Illya about the site's new offerings. The interview was conducted at the Southern California Genealogical Jamboree in Burbank, California.

Watch and listen to the video at http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_conferences3.php?bcpid=6933799001&bclid=27965007001&bctid=29865721001

Newspapers for Genealogy Research and Not Logic

2009-07-22T17:40:00.003-04:00

The entire newspaper collection from NewspaperARCHIVE.com has been cataloged into Live Roots, which added close to 4,000 new resources -- all with locations so they appear properly in the Navigate feature. In addition, I recently added "not" logic to the main Live Roots search. To negate a word in your query, place an exclamation point before the word (no space). For example, "johnson !county" would mean "show me all listings containing the word JOHNSON but NOT containing the word COUNTY." Keep in mind, the search is only as good as the listings in the catalog, so if a listing is about Johnson County, but doesn't include the word "county" in the listing, it will still appear.

More Free Books for Genealogists

2009-07-16T10:08:00.002-04:00

I posted the latest catalog update from the BYU Family History Archives project, about another 1,000 books. This is a wonderful project, similar to Google Books, but focused on resources of interest to genealogists. Also, posted yesterday, an update from FamilyOldPhotos.com, Teri Brown's growing collection of searchable group photos.

Enhancing the Live Roots Search Experience

2009-06-25T18:21:00.002-04:00

In conjunction with the Southern California Genealogical Jamboree, I released some project management tools to help visitors keep track and organize the genealogical resources that they discover while using the search engine. Throughout Live Roots, registered members will now see Follow, Comment, Record and Share buttons. For more information, please read "Live Roots Search Experience, Release Two".

How many Genealogical words is a Picture worth?

2009-06-17T16:55:00.002-04:00

With more genealogists posting photos online, it only makes sense to include sites like Flickr and Picasa Web Albums to the Live Roots project. In addition to photos of ancestors, you may stumble upon cemetery images of tombstones, or historical buildings where your ancestors lived, worked, worshiped or played. Both of these new search interfaces can be found on the real-time search page. Also, thanks go to Wevonneda Minis, who I met at the NGS conference in Raleigh, for her nice article on Live Roots, "Search engine for genealogists."

Genealogists suggest adding more precise searching options

2009-06-03T12:44:00.003-04:00

I've added an "Advanced" link to the small green search box that appears on every page of the LiveRoots.com website. This will lead you to the search tool that I developed for the iGoogle gadget, allowing you to search any of the resources accessible through Live Roots. Also, if you are a FamilyTreeMaker user, check out this blog post by Russ Worthington about adding LiveRoots.com as a custom search option. UPDATE: The iGoogle gadget that I created is now also available in the orkut online community application directory (search for "Live Roots").

Discover More Genealogy at Live Roots

2009-05-22T12:56:00.006-04:00

Additional integrated real-time searches include YouTube (videos) and RootsWeb Search. There is also a new feature on the site called "Discover More Genealogy (within Live Roots)" that guides you to all of the feeds (blogs, podcasts, video channels and tweeters) that are currently followed. You'll find this feature below the Roots Discover option, and throughout the site whenever you are looking at a feed. We were mentioned recently on DearMyrtle's blog (see "LiveRoots.com: saving time for online researchers"), in Tamura Jones' coverage of Facebook applications (see "Facebook Genealogy") and Randy Seaver has been writing a very interesting multi-part review of Live Roots (see "Using LiveRoots.com - Post 1" and "Post 2").

More Refined Searching at Live Roots

2009-05-08T23:55:00.002-04:00

I've expanded the options for several of the real-time search partners, including Ancestry.com, Footnote.com, Genealogy Bank and World Vital Records. You are now able to filter searches by adding given (first) names, regions, year (or range) and keywords. The options currently vary between partners, but I am working with each partner to expand each preview feature. Once you enter the options for one partner, you are able to click on the preview links for the other partners without have to re-enter them.

BYU Book Collection Added to Live Roots

2009-05-07T22:38:00.005-04:00

The Family History Archive collection is being added to the Live Roots catalog. Currently over 10,000 online books (all free access) have been included. Also this week, a preview for Genealogy Bank was added so you can search from within Live Roots and see what they have available for your surnames. Links to the major collections of HeritageQuest Online were added. Links for the library version of Ancestry.com are now included for anyone using Live Roots from within a library that subscribes. Additional sharing options were added to the Facebook version of Live Roots.

Search the Family History Library Catalog on Live Roots

2009-05-01T18:36:00.002-04:00

I am pleased to announce the addition of the Family History Library Catalog to the Live Roots Project (i.e. LiveRoots.com and Live Roots for Facebook). Visitors using either platform may now perform Place, Surname, Keyword, Title, Author and Subject searches from within the Live Roots environment. Visitors using the Facebook application are able to "Share" any of the FHL Catalog results with their friends and family directly from within Facebook. A similar feature is under development for the LiveRoots.com website.

Live Roots Available on Facebook

2009-04-21T16:30:00.004-04:00

This week, I released a version of LiveRoots.com as a Facebook application. The Live Roots for Facebook application includes all of the same features as the website, PLUS it allows you to easily share your discoveries with friends and family. If you're a Facebook member, you've got to give this a try.

Another great message board added to Live Roots search

2009-04-15T00:03:00.002-04:00

The CousinConnect genealogy query and surname database is now integrated into the Live Roots search system. Online since 2002, CousinConnect now hosts close to 200,000 queries. Within the Live Roots search, you'll be able to browse all of the query posts for a specific surname, and then click on them to see the message detail.

The wonderful world of Wiki... Genealogy Style

2009-04-10T14:11:00.006-04:00

The FamilySearch Research Wiki may now be browsed from within Live Roots, giving our visitors easy access to this on-line library of articles and how-to instructions about doing family history. A full text search of the Wiki is expected in the near future and will be added to Live Roots as well.

Additional Book Collection added to Live Roots

2009-03-26T14:36:00.001-04:00

The book and CD-Rom catalog from Brookhaven Press is now included in Live Roots. Several thousand items are part of this excellent collection. Their microfilm catalog will be added as well in the next few weeks.

Is one Life really enough for Genealogists?

2009-03-12T10:29:00.003-04:00

Genealogists in the Second Life (SL) virtual world now have a powerful new tool for conducting research within the realms of this interactive social networking environment. We released the first general release version of the Live Roots Genealogy HUD. HUD stands for Heads up display, and is type of object that can be worn, functions like a control panel, but cannot seen by other residents. The Genealogy HUD functions in parallel to the LiveRoots.com website; SL residents may Search, Navigate and Discover genealogy resources in a similar manner. The Genealogy HUD is available for free in the Live Roots Genealogy Zone (within Second Life). A single Basic account to Second Life is also FREE.

Genealogists like Speed, right?

2009-02-18T09:46:00.003-05:00

I don't know about fast cars or fast trains, but I do know genealogists prefer fast databases. Last night, I released an update to the core Live Roots search that improves performance significantly. Searches that used to take 40 seconds are now returning in less than 10! Also, you may have noticed that the Team Roots program is now available on LiveRoots.com (as well as GenealogyToday.com) via the new top menu options. While presently members enjoy only a few perks on LiveRoots.com, in the near future there will be some very interesting features just for members. Stay tuned! Live Roots was mentioned on the Genealogy etc. blog.

Heritage Books Cataloged on Live Roots

2009-02-04T23:10:00.003-05:00

Wow! I didn't realize how many unique books, maps and cd-roms were produced by Heritage Books. They are all loaded into the Live Roots catalog and geocoded. I'm working with some additional publishers to obtain copies of their catalogs for inclusion on Live Roots as well. I've been getting some good feedback regarding the way results are sorted and will be making some changes within the next week. There's also a significant amount of name data for the Live Roots index in the queue, which should be online shortly.

Trusting the information that Genealogists discover online

2009-02-03T13:44:00.003-05:00

I'm an advocate of transparency when it comes to online genealogy, especially since this is such a passionate hobby. You read articles all the time stressing the importance of "citing your source," and yet so many web sites fail to post the information needed for completeness. Today I launched a new feature on Live Roots that helps you to determine who owns the domains of the resources in our catalog. Along with the ownership (if available), I am providing links to several popular domain tracking sites including Alexa, Quantcast, Compete and the McAfee Site Advisor. If the company behind the domain is accredited by the BBB, a link to the certificate is provided. And, if I am able to find a clearly visible link to the site privacy policy, it will be included as well. A shortcut to this new service is GenWhois.com

More Genealogy Data and Genealogy Books

2009-02-01T14:56:00.003-05:00

Today I worked on cataloging resources from Accessible Archives, The Godfrey Memorial Library (unique resources), and Heritage Books, Inc. (still in progress). Also, more broken links were fixed, and links to dozens of newly discovered transcriptions were added. Earlier this week, I began developing the Live Roots on Second Life outpost for genealogists, where you will soon be able to research you roots in new and exciting ways.