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"Extreme" Family History and Genealogy
With the advent of digital technology, new ways of "doing" family history and genealogy
are appearing, allowing individuals to more fully "experience" history, or to collaborate
with others in finding their ancestors through innovative tools being developed
or adapted for genealogical research.
Some of these new ways are out-of-the ordinary-even extreme-in comparison with traditional
methods. This article briefly shares two ways in which family history and genealogy
may be called "extreme."
EXTREME FAMILY HISTORY:
The first "extreme" we found is where individuals actually live in a recreated time
period. We discovered that
Lisa Cooke,
Genealogy Gems, and her family participated in PBS television series
called
Texas Ranch House. A Web site has preserved the experience and comes complete
with journal excerpts as a reality check with plenty of links to historical resources.
Life on a Texas ranch in 1867 was recreated for television and Lisa's family by
outfitting the family and ranch workers in period clothing and providing them with
the tools of the time to experience "what the saddle-sore, rope-burned, and sun-blistered
ranch life was really like." The site features details of the episodes where "real"
life depicted the recreation, leisure time, music, cattle drives, and food of the
Texas cowboys and their families.
An interactive history page features games where individuals can test their skills
of wrangling, roping, selecting food, cattle prodding, and cowboy slang. This area
helps young people learn many aspects of history and have fun while learning.
EXTREME GENEALOGY:
Genealogical record collection on an "extreme" scale is what
FamilySearch.org is doing all over the world. The current FamilySearch effort
to convert their microfilm collection to digital is to create better access to the
films and new records. FamilySearch operates 4500 Family History centers in 80 countries
throughout the world.
Dick Eastman, a popular blogger in the genealogy and family history field, interviewed Paul
Nauta, Manager of Public Affairs, at FamilySearch. a non-profit organization that
has accumulated the largest repository of genealogical records in the world. Dick
interviewed Paul at the recent FGS conference in Philadelphia. You can view the
entire interview at Roots Television by
clicking here.
Facts on the "extreme" nature of the FamilySearch project:
- The bulk of the collection is still on microfilm and FamilySearch has almost 2.5
million rolls of microfilm left to digitize.
- Less than 3% of this material is digitized and indexed online.
- This microfilm collection will take 8-10 years to convert it to digital.
- 15 high speed scanners are in the Granite Mountain Records vault in Salt Lake City
Utah and are being used five days a week.
- FamilySearch has replaced most of their microfilm cameras in the world with digital cameras.
- Over 200 camera teams in 45 countries are digitizing original documents five days
a week.
- These teams produce 40 million images a year that FamilySearch wants to put online.
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