The purpose of this session is to show how to easily publish a family history on the Internet. We’ll start with the very beginning and work through to the end product, your own family tree web page. Classes teaching how to properly design a web page teach seven steps. These steps are:

Verify

Promote

Innovate

Refine, update & improve

I leave it to you to apply them to publishing a family history. Step three in this process can be replaced with five steps for getting your family tree on the Internet.

1. Research and document your pedigree. Until you have something to share, there isn’t much point to publishing. Some research can be done online, but much of it requires using traditional resources such as microfilm, certificates, and correspondence.
2. Enter your data into a database (including sources!). Pick a program that meets your needs (I recommend Family Origins, Legacy, PAF 4, or The Master Genealogist). Two factors in choosing a genealogy program are whether it creates web pages and what its pages look like. See Choosing a program to help you create web pages in the A Comparison of Genealogy Software Programs material in the this syllabus.
3. Launch the program that creates your web pages and make a few choices about who and what to include and how the data will look. The options vary, depending on the program you select to create your web pages. Once created on your hard drive, you may choose to use a program to edit the pages and make changes (add more pictures, etc.). Use .jpg or .gif format for pictures. Word ’97 or Corel 9 or later will do this, as well as many other programs (Word 2000 works much better, or FrontPage Express).
4. Find a place that’s permanent Internet site to store your data. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) may include this in the basic monthly charge you’re already paying. Many others do this free, including rootsweb, homepage, and geocities. The price of free web space is allowing advertising on your web page (which generates revenue for the host). See Finding a Place of Storage, below. Take time to consider your options.
5. Transfer the pages created from your hard drive to the storage site you chose. Some places that store web pages for you have a wizard that steps you through the process of transfer (Geocities, Homepage, …). Some programs (FamilyTreeMaker) do this for you automatically. Others require you to use an FTP program (File Transfer Protocol) such as WS_FTP (a freeware program readily available). Other popular FTP programs include Cute FTP and CoffeeCup.

Once these steps are completed, you should proofread the text and validate the HTML (see if the coding is valid and works in any web browser), make sure that the links are working, and that your data is properly presented. Tools to help you do these things are mentioned in the Preparing to Publish syllabus material. Once you are satisfied, you need to promote your web pages. After all, the reason one puts them on the web is to make them available to people. You can do this by notifying key sites (CyndisList, Genealogy SiteFinder, FamilySearch Internet, etc.), putting announcements on appropriate newsgroups and mailing lists, and notifying the search engines (Google, Altavista, Lycos, etc.). Detailed instructions for these steps are included in the tutorials mentioned in the Preparing to Publish syllabus material or in a variety of books and magazine articles.

For a discussion of programs that create genealogy web sites, see the syllabus material A Comparison of Genealogical Software Products. There are basically three types of programs that will put your family names on line:

You have a lot of choices in where to store your web pages. Your Internet Service Provider (the company you use to connect to the Internet) may already be charging you for space to store your web pages--it's included in most monthly service fees. This is true of America Online, CompuServe, and most local ISPs. Some programs, such as FamilyTreeMaker, include storage space with the program you purchase. The disadvantage of this sort of service is that you do not have access to the storage space and cannot fine tune your web pages. The advantage is that you don't have to worry about steps four and five as the program does them automatically.

Some people prefer to use a separate host for storing their web pages. The advantage is that if they change ISPs (for faster, better, or cheaper access), they don't have to move their web pages. Also, they can edit their web pages from other computers that don't use the same ISP. Geocities, AngelFire, RootsWeb FreePages and others do this by having you log in to their site on the web and then transfer the pages to their computers. This can be done from any computer with access to the Internet. The disadvantage is that they then place advertising on your web pages.

For more information on how to create and improve family history web pages, the choices involved, and how to improve them once created, please refer to: