Seems I’ve been tagged with the KreativBlogger award by Julie at GenBlog. Thank you very much.

I guess I’m supposed to tag 5 others according to the rules. I’m hoping I can find 5 bloggers that can be tagged. I usually get caught at the end of these, which I’m used to since it comes with having a “Z” surname.

Rules

1. Copy the award to your site.
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate 5 other bloggers.
4. Link to those sites on your blog.
5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominate.

And the award goes to…

• John at Transylvanian Dutch
• Elyse at Elyse’s Genealogy Blog
• Steve at Steve’s Genealogy Blog
• Henk at Trace Your Dutch Roots
• Alexis at Your Future, Your Past

You’ve been doing all of this work on your family tree in your software of choice like Rootsmagic or Family Tree Maker. You’re in contact with some people via the Internet about different people and generations in your tree. You find it annoying that you need to type the information into emails and message posts all the time. Plus, when you update the info, the posting is still old. What do you do?

Setting up your family tree onto your own hosted website isn’t very difficult today. There are tons of hosts out there now that are extremely cheap compared to few years ago. For example, my host, Dreamhost, gives you more space and bandwidth than you’d ever need for like $9.95 a month (depending on how much you pay at a time.)

There are a few options out there to host your own family tree website. I’m currently using The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding for my family tree hosting. I had used a free, open-source program before, but it had some issues with my current host so I looked for something else. TNGGS has worked wonderfully for me and it’s very powerful and customizable.

Most Linux-based hosts have all of the items you need to run TNGGS. MySQL and PHP are almost standards in web hosting. A Windows-based host may have these capabilities, also, but your mileage may vary.

The only caveat to using TNGGS is that it’s not free, but I wouldn’t hold that against it. The developer, Darrin Lythgoe, has put a lot of work into it and has answered any questions that I’ve sent to him. I’ve also received free updates since I purchased my original copy.

There are other options such as Ancestry’s online tree and dynastree.com, etc but you don’t have a ton of control over these. The pro for them is that you can search and connect to other people’s trees, which I do also. For example, at Ancestry I wanted to update my online tree with some new information I had. Unfortunately, if I would do this than I would lose all of the items (census, records, etc) I have connected to my family tree.

Now when you need to put some information into an email or a message posting, you can just paste in a URL. The person on the other end can just visit your online tree and see the latest info. Or, if you enable the option, they can log in to your site and add their own info or edits.

Feel free to email me about my experience with TNGGS or stop over at the official site and take a look. I definitely recommend it. I can also help you set it up or answer any questions about hosting, etc. I have a bit of experience.

*This is just a personal opinion. TNGGS has in no way, shape, or form paid for my review.

Sorry for the low post count. Haven’t had a lot of time lately for Genealogy research. Should be back soon enough. For now, I wanted to make sure all new visitors see the Zalewski-related projects I’m working on in case they want to help out. Info linked below.

• Working to compile the largest database of Zalewski family trees this side of Poland. – Zalewski Family Tree Project
• Want to find out as much information as you can about the Zalewski surname and where it comes from? Is your Zalewski ancestor related to one of the many Zalewski families being researched by others? Zalewski DNA Project

Feel free to contact me about anything and everything, either in the comments or using my contact form. I’ll respond to everyone. Thanks.

I changed the theme tonight. The old one, while nice, was starting to get clunky and cause me issues. It was hard to fix/edit due to a lot of the comments being written in German (Just because I have German heritage doesn’t mean I can speak it.) It was also statring to load a bit slow, at least for me. I’d rather have the site be bland as long as the content is working.

I found this decent theme, which is simple, yet pretty. I also added a random photo from my photo gallery to the right. I wanted it to just grab from my genealogy album, but I guess it doesn’t have that ability yet. So, you may get some other random photos from vacations, etc. Let me know how you like it, or if something weird is happening in your browser. I tested it in Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7, so far. That covers most of the major issues, usually. Thanks.

Well, my Grandpa is doing much better now. My wife and I visited him in the hospital on Saturday and he was his old joking self. Hopefully, he’ll be coming home shortly.

I’ve been out of the “genealogy circuit” here for the last few weeks, so that’s why I’ve been slow on the posts. I’m working on getting more information that will allow me to post more often, even when I’m not actively researching since I don’t always have time to do family research.

For all of you genealogy bloggers out there, where do you find the inspiration and information to be able to post quite often even when not actively researching? I’d like some tips to help me get the ball rolling.

As I was browsing my family tree information on the site, I noticed that some of the parent-child relationships were messed up. It seems to be mainly located on the tree of my wife. I only checked a few generations before I gave up editing them via the website. I’ll re-upload the GEDCOM when I’m home tonight.

Starting with her, she had two sets of parents: her real parents and then two French individuals from 1665. Her parents also had two sets of parents. Then came a funny one, her grandparents had two sets of parents, one pair of which was themselves. That could mess up the kids.

So, don’t mind the double-parents right now. Hopefully, I’ll get it fixed tonight.

UPDATE: Ok, it seems to be fixed now after I refreshed the database. Carry on.

I’m back again or am planning on it at least. I know, I know, you’ve heard that before. Though, I have a lot more free time lately and I’ve already been doing some more research.

I actually found some more leads and doing some more research using my Ancestry.com subscription. I have to admit that their new “My Ancestry” section is wonderful. After I uploaded my tree to it, it automatically helps in searching and attaching sources to my family members. You can also use it to connect to user’s trees together, etc. It’s like Family Tree Maker’s online search function, but a lot better.

I’ve been doing some more research on my wife’s tree. This section of family seems to come from the New York/Connecticut area (if I connected it right.) Does anyone have any good sources to use for research in those areas in the early 1800s and late 1700s?

Sorry, I had to disable the comments thanks to some jerk who keeps posting spam comments. Though, they’re not getting online, I still need to go in a delete them manually. If you need to contact me, feel free to use my contact form.