Armchair Genealogy - Family Tree & History

Genealogy Guy 0:00
Hello and welcome to The Armchair Genealogy Podcast, where we aim to demystify technology and make it useful in family tree research. Whilst making it fun and easy to do. Featuring interviews and alternative tips. Please remember to subscribe and share the podcast. So on with the episode and welcome along to the first episode of the Armchair Genealogy Podcast brought to you by me the Genealogy Guy and Broadcast Media UK. Ultimately, we aim to bring you unbiased thoughts and tips based on our own opinions as we explore the world of genealogy. If you have any tips or advice or suggestions for future content, then please do contact us at info@armchairgenealogy.com.

During lockdown, I spent many happy hours listening to podcasts, particularly those about genealogy and family trees. I decided to add my voice with a UK perspective with a leaning towards A/ helping people who are just getting going and B/ what technology is now available that can make the search sometimes easier. Way back in 1979 When I was a teenager in the UK, there was a TV series on BBC television in which a news broadcaster Gordon Honeycomb traced his family tree and we followed his journey. This really inspired me to start looking for my own. Back in the early days when I started, everything was analog. And the nearest we came to looking at a screen for research was looking at microfiche film of old census forms, and lots of journeys to parishes, tracking down their records. A Little did you know fact John Rickman classed as the father of Census. In the first census of 1801. He found the population of England and Wales was 9.9 million, roughly the population of London in 2020. So you can see how the data just keeps growing. Nowadays, a lot of documents are now scanned, digitised and transcribed. Although one quick tip is always look at the original image, and not just the transcription. As sometimes there are odd mistakes which completely send you off down the wrong path. Most of the online platforms helping with genealogy research, either pay for or scan these documents. And as a second note, there is no one singular platform that has them all. Which is why you sometimes have to become members of other companies. When you want to see the actual evidence most of these have a free account that you can input your family tree. And if you're lucky, you can get suggestions from other people who have created trees on the same system. Using these online systems, you can hide your tree, so no one can see it unless you share it. So you do have control on most of these online systems. And most default to hiding the names of anyone there is still living that appears on a tree.

So through these podcasts, you should become aware of how to use technology and apply it in your research. Whether you're a beginner, or an expert who wants to share your tips. These podcasts provide valuable insight into the world of technology. And along the way we'll be inviting people to be guests on the podcast. So do remember to subscribe and get ready to explore the possibilities.

Jingle 3:35
Email the podcast by contacting us info@armchairgenealogy.com.

Genealogy Guy 3:41
Now getting started on a family tree can be very confusing. And over the years technology has developed at a tremendous rate. There's no right or wrong way on how to gather and collate this information, or the media on your journey. Whatever works for you is fine. The one thing to keep in mind if you wish to share the data is that it's best to have a central file format that you know can be accessed by others easily and you also cite your sources. Now over the years, I've come across many people that have used standard pen and paper, computers for word-processed files with numerous file extensions for all kinds of data from video and sound through to scan documents and pictures, and getting to grips with these formats and making them accessible to others can be complicated, but well worth doing in the long term. If you are planning to start creating a family tree, then do make sure you create one basic digital family tree format. This is known as a gedcom file, G E D C O M these files and I enable you to store the data and create connections between all the people that you have put into it. The beauty of a Gedcom file is they are standard in nearly every piece of software or online tool where you can try and build your family tree. Once in there you can download and send to other family members or genealogists. And they can import it into their software, or online account the benefits of the gedcom file. It also remembers dates of birth, dates of death, spouse names, and all the other details relating to each entry. So the next person gets a tree with information already in it, that they can either corroborate or add more details to the file. After all, you've spent many hours gathering this information the last thing you want to do is not be able to pass it on. So that brings us to the end of the first episode of the armchair genealogy podcast. And remember, as the late and wonderful UK comedian Jeremy Hardy is reported to have once said, The thing that interests me most about family history is the gap between the things we think we know about our families and the realities. Until the next episode, happy and fruitful researching.

Jingle 6:06
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