A NEW way to display your family history
Aug 13, 2021 11:01 pm
Hope you've had a great week!
With the changes to Ancestry's Terms of Service (ToS), it sounds like, and I'm not a lawyer, Ancestry is creating indexes/derivative works from photos & documents uploaded by users and if a user removes photos from their personal site, Ancestry doesn't want to be forced to remove them from their index, so they're having users agree to an updated ToS that allows them a perpetual and non-revocable contract to use those items. I'm fine with sharing photos of deceased family etc, but I deleted some family history videos I'd uploaded because I might want to change them in the future and don't want Ancestry to share older/unrevised videos. So, not a huge deal, just a little housekeeping to take care of on my Ancestry.com tree. Again, you can read about the changes at Judy G. Russell's blog, The Legal Genealogist, and read the comments to gain a greater understanding of the issue.
One thing this discussion has done is it has helped me focus on the desired end-result of my family history work. I want a way to display my family history. One fun new product for displaying our family history research is Grant Goulet's Bright Branches. For a one-time fee of $49 you can upload a GEDCOM or your Ancestry family tree and Bright Branches displays your tree in a beautiful, artistic format. The background, by default, has many colors to choose from OR as shown in the image below, you can upload some family photos to Bright Branches and tell the program to display your tree over family photos and it will rotate through the photos you've selected (these personal photos are on your site at Bright Branches, not at Ancestry). Here's a link to Grant's tree, superimposed over family photos: https://brightbranches.com/family_tree/index_demo.php?fancyColors=preset&fancyScheme=Photos
If you click on any name in the tree, it will take you to an individual and you can then select the name and you'll be taken to records and sources attached to that person in the tree. When you're using the program you can back out of each page--you can't do that with this shared link, you'll have to keep reusing the original shared link in this email to access other parts of the tree.
So far, this is the best display I've seen incorporating a family tree, photos, resources, etc. And for the one-time $49 fee, Bright Branches, if you give them access, will regularly update your Bright Branches site with changes/new research from your Ancestry tree.
And, with a Chromecast device you can display this tree on a TV and use it at family reunions, etc, as a way to walk people through the family tree.
So, those are my thoughts this week. I'm trying to keep the desired end-result in sight and remember the WHY of my family history research.
Here are some new listings and there are many more in draft form, just waiting to be posted.
New and Updated Listings
Illinois City Directories Online
Indiana City Directories Online
Kansas City Directories Online
Louisiana City Directories Online
Massachusetts City Directories Online
Minnesota City Directories Online
Nevada City Directories Online
North Dakota City Directories Online
