Keeping in touch

Well, things around here have been pretty sleepy.

This website has been pretty slow since we got those photo updates from Joe Clarkson Carpenter. I know there are meetings ongoing about the cemetery maintenance, but nothing new has been posted in a while. If you are on that committee, then bring it up with the committed, and maybe one of you can come up with a news release about what has been going on that the rest of the family might like to know.

Seeing as we have been having a stormy winter, I imagine not many of you have been traveling. When you do get around to visiting the old home sites again, why not consider keeping some notes, take a few photographs and then write up a quick letter to the family describing the highlights and submit that to the forum? It does not have to be fancy, just say it in your own words and send it in via Email. Registered members can post it to the forums on their own.

I can receive batches of files (photos, documents, etc) via Email, so long as they do not exceed about 3MB per batch. You will need to write to me the first time using the web form, then I will give you a "real" Email address to send to. You can send files to me loose if you do not know any other way; however I strongly prefer receiving an archive file.

The best way to send groups of files on the Internet is to compress them and add them to an archive file (e.g. "filename.zip"). Think of it as an electronic envelope. It will make your transmit size smaller and will also help prevent data corruption while your files are on the way. I will put more information about file compression at the end of this post following my signature.

The main point here is to keep saying the same thing over and over. The only way this website is going to grow, and thus make progress on the goal of preserving family history, is if you all submit your stories, your research, your photographs, etc..

CREATE A SPECIAL PAGE FOR YOU
If you are ambitious, and plan to submit several articles, then I can create a special web page just for you. Then others will see your information in one place. Think of me as your publisher. If you understand HTML, or have a good tool that created clean code, then all I have to do is post your work. If you do not have a way to create the HTML yourself, then just send me the text and the photos. I promise I will do it justice and give you a chance to approve the final product before the rest of the family takes a look.

Are you worried about posting things a stranger might see? I can give your pages the same protection that we use to password protect the GEDCOM files. Then, only confirmed family will be approved to access your pages. You already enjoy privacy protections in the FORUM, so why not post your stories there? It is just about as easy as writing an Email. Just type the subject and then either type or paste in the text.

PHOTOGRAPHS, and the benefit to you
I also have unlimited capacity for storing digital photos. Yes, that is not a typo. The capacity is UNLIMITED. That means we can add to the Photographs until everything we have collectively is available for other family members and especially for future generations.

That service is backed up daily, and the backups are stored miles deep inside a granite mountain. That facility was designed to withstand a nuclear attack... no kidding. I can request a set of DVD backups anytime. For now, I have a copy of everything stored offline, but if this thing grows big enough, then you can be sure that I will request a backup as often as seems necessary.

If that is not enough, consider this... If you share your photographs with this Photographs database, then you can enjoy that same backup protection from disaster. You can sleep well knowing that you can always download a copy of your priceless photographs later if your computer crashes or you suffer a calamity like Hurricane Katrina.

You can also request professional prints of your photos. The same quality prints that you have seen with other online photo services, you get here.

I am offering you this for free. If you would like to donate something, that will help keep this site growing. However, I have no plans to ever charge for this service to the family. The only limitation is that on my account, I am accepting only Genealogy related images. Family photos are okay, that are representative of each generation. I can even password protect individual galleries so that access to them can be controlled to the special people you might choose to share them with.

I am currently visiting some options for gaining better control over who is able to see the Galleries, and to control blocking them from Google Searches. I would like to do this in such a way that they are still viewable from the website. If you have questions about this, or other questions regarding SmugMug, then send me an Email.

Anyway, the main point of writing today is to let everyone know I am still around, and still watching and waiting for new information. If any one of you gets motivated to share some information, then look for the contact the webmaster Email links posted all over this website and get in touch with me so we can discuss your needs. I am here to serve.

: Joseph W. Carpenter
: Your friendly neighborhood webmaster

For more information about compression utilities, see www.7zip.com (free for Windows only), www.stuffit.com (~$25 for standard version), or www.winzip.com (~$30) .) I will write up an article one of these days and post it to our technical resources section. Ambition is lofty, time is precious.

FYI for those who already know about file compression -- I can accept most standard archive formats (e.g. *.zip, *.7z, *.sit, *.sitx, *.gz, *.tar, *.dmg, *.rar, etc.)