Where Were You? 9/11

I was getting ready for work when I walked into the living room of our apartment. My husband sat on the couch, watching a single burning twin tower. As I listened to the newscaster explain that a plane had struck the tower, I saw the second tower get struck by another plane. At first I thought, how could someone make the same mistake twice? Target fixation? Why were they flying so low in the first place? Then it hit me; this was intentional.

Dazed and bewildered, I slumped down next to Chris and watched as people jumped from the building to their deaths. It was so confusing and painful.

People suddenly acted differently toward each other. Gone were the usual pushy, angry drivers. It was as if humans were treating one another as humans instead of objects, irritations, or obstacles.

As I drove down the freeway later with my handicapped brother, he started to cry. I asked him what was wrong, and he told me that he had a bad dream. In his limited vocabulary he described the burning buildings, the people jumping from the buildings, and even a man and a woman who jumped holding hands. It did seem like a bad dream. I wished it had been, but realized that the footage had deeply touched his tender heart. He would continue to talk about this bad dream for the next several months.

While traveling to Salt Lake City one morning I saw a group of business-attire-clad men and women on the roof of a building next to the freeway. They stood waving flags, and I sobbed at the sight.

The radio was full of songs about American pride, courage and strength. The troops were hailed as a symbol of perfect patriotism. Some lashed out at American citizens of Middle Eastern descent or religions. Most reached out in love to those impacted by the devastation that was witnessed by a nation that September morning.

I later learned that I had a cousin who had barely escaped the crumbling buildings, and was forever impacted by his close escape. He had been in a hotel getting out of the shower and felt he needed to get out when he heard the noise, but was told to stay put. He left instead and watched the buildings crumble behind him.

The most tangible thing was that we were unified. We were one. We were kinder, we valued life more, we mourned not just as a country, but as a nation, and oddly, we were once again One Nation Under God. God was okay to talk about again, and it felt right.

We didn't crumble and fall to our knees at the mercy of some terrorists, we fell to our knees before our God in gratitude for life, and then stood to lift others in their losses and rejoiced in the survival stories of the few fortunate ones.

The Next Generation

As one who spent many years uncertain if I would have a next generation, I feel like I won the jackpot with my recent buds on my family tree. Perhaps I am overly enthusiastic about that fact because I am teaching them German, and yes, they will be learning Gothic Fraktur as well. Good grief, what good is it to have research buddies if they can't read the handwriting?

It will undoubtedly be my luck that these wee ones will grow up to be eye-rolling anti-genealogists, but you can't say I didn't try.

When Strange and Peculiar Habits Prevail

I recently started transcribing some documents from the Draper Manuscript Collection. Lyman C. Draper was an obsessive historian who lived during the 1800s and researched persons of interest to him, often from the south. Oddly, while searching for information about one individual, he would become interested in a colleague and would then pursue their life story as well. Draper was unique in that he sent questionnaires to related individuals sometimes long after his research target was deceased. He asked about family, migration, military service, and more. Women and children were also included in his research. He was an excellent example of a cluster researcher, far ahead of his time.

In the case of Tecumseh, he interviewed many who did battle with him, including those who had claim on taking his life. He interviewed people from his tribe to determine if Tecumseh had any remaining blood descendants.

In the case of my ancestor, Draper wrote letters to surviving family members and colleagues. These family members in turn interviewed war buddies, documented remembrances from parents and others now deceased, wrote letters to cousins to determine if any personal papers survived, and reported back their findings to Draper. The letters are dated in the 1840s and stretch back over a century in content, listing the migration patterns, revolutionary war activities, siblings, birth and death details, marriage information, and whether or not each sibling left behind any living posterity. The recollections take the family back several generations and even document the exchange or transfer of property to which heirs.

While Josephine Harper created a guide to the Draper Manuscript Collection, it is not a complete index of the collection. Letters from related individuals may be included, or ancestors may be mentioned in the letters, but without a complete index, this handwritten collection of ancestral gold it is still not easily searched.

While I'm certain that there were those who thought Draper a very unusual individual in his day, his work is priceless today. Indeed, when one is lucky enough to have an ancestor who caught Draper's attention, it's as good as stepping back in time and hiring a genealogist to locate early ancestral information that exists in no other form.

Google: Do No Evil

I was recently looking into Google's "Don't Be Evil" manifesto to gain some insight into their internal policies surrounding the data they collect. It's fascinating to learn what various organizations define as "evil," or how they avoid this perception. Even working for FamilySearch, a non-profit organization, there were those who chose to interpret some of the software updates and changes as ill-intended. I never saw that as the case, and felt that those who took this perspective were failing to look at the bigger picture.

Google, while providing privacy settings in all of their products, does not set these as default settings. Many users are unaware of these privacy settings, and Google continues to collect "helpful" information about them. Products like Blogger, YouTube, Chrome, Google+, and Gmail allow Google to collect information about users in order to market to them better. Google's Android is set up to do the same, and as recently as a few months ago, was discovered to include flaws that leaked personal information about Android phone users.

While some users (including myself), are willing to overlook these flaws in interest of Google's super-usable offerings, it is interesting to discover just what is meant by "Don't Be Evil." Wouldn't it be nice if there were organizations whose motto was "Do Good," rather than "Don't Be Evil?"

Having come from the non-profit sector, I thought it would be impossible to find a private organization that was engaged in doing good. I thought that I would need to adjust my philosophy of being a benefactor to the genealogical community and the world as a whole. Shortly after starting with Inflection (Archives.com), I started receiving internal e-mails like this:

"Happy Birthday to xxxx, who has donated their cake to Z non-profit organization." What followed was a description of the organization and the good they were doing in the world.

Next I learned that for every software update and release, the company multiplies the release number by a set dollar amount, and donates significant amounts of money to non-profit organizations. They donate food and money to local organizations almost every day, but they do so quietly, without fanfare or accolades. When working with other organizations, they set high standards of integrity and honesty. Who would think that a private-sector, for-profit company would drive me to want to "Do Good" in every way?

Everyone has a slightly different definition of "Do Good," and of "Don't Be Evil," but it's comforting to know that there are companies out there that are going beyond avoiding evil or just making money. I know there are others beyond Inflection/Archives.com that do this. Do you know of a "Do Good" company? Please share below!

A Little Land Record Lesson

Yesterday I had the privilege of going to one of the busiest, most lively County Recorder's offices I have ever visited. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that this particular county was rich in oil. The woman who offered to help me in my search seemed to be oblivious to the fact that there were alphabetical name indexes pertaining to the grantors and grantees. "No, there's no way to look up the section of land by the owner," she said. This was unusual, considering that she was a specialist in her area. As I often enjoy doing in situations like this, I played dumb and let her walk me through her method of accessing the land records I was in pursuit of.

Similar to land plat books, she had on her computer a program that would locate land based on township and section number. Think "Google Earth + Land Plat Maps," and you are right there with me. I decided that I needed one of those programs at home, but something told me I couldn't afford it. Fortunately, I was familiar enough with the ancestral area (without having the township or section number) that I could visually locate the section of land on her computer. The next step, of course, was going to the books.

As I entered the record room, I was surprised to see a long line of young, vibrant faces holding books that spanned their torsos from shoulder to waist, waiting to exchange their tomes for another. Their presence was accompanied by friendly and casual chatter over the records as they identified sections of land that would benefit their oil company employers.

Directly behind them on a shelf, I noticed the Grantor/Grantee Deed Index books, but was guided instead to the township and section books by my experienced helper. Here I will confess: I have never started with the township/section books. I have always started with the deed index books to first identify the individual ancestor in order to identify the township and section. My advantage this day was knowing precisely where the land was located prior to my search, having lived on a portion of the land as a child.

What this allowed me to do early in my search was to view all neighboring transactions for the specific land section in a handful of pages rather than jumping around through deed books to determine each transaction that the individual ancestor participated in. The obvious disadvantage to starting with the township books was that I might skip over other sections owned by that same ancestor.

Jumping into the shoes of these master petroleum geologists was very insightful for me. On one hand, I considered the experience of these individuals, and thought about how much more valuable the genealogical industry is when we tap into others' occupational expertise. On the other hand, I realized how confusing and overwhelming this process might have been for a newbie researcher who had no prior knowledge of the township and section number, nor of deed index books. Had someone called this office to request a copy of ancestral land records, it might have resulted in zero results if the caller didn't first know the township and section number.

While I am an enormous advocate for onsite research where possible, this was a perfect scenario to help me reaffirm the value of digitization coupled with the need for expert mentors. By providing assisted remote access to the records, the newbie could get help to locate the necessary records minus the confusion and frustration.

Digitization efforts call for a new kind of professional researcher: an online consultant who is able to use technology with agility to assist researchers of various (and lesser) skill levels in accessing, navigating, assessing, and analyzing online record collections. These professional researchers must be more than great researchers, they must be great instructors and consultants. They must be great technologists to help their clients remotely as if they were sitting beside them on their computer. They must be great networkers, so that when they lack the knowledge to assist with a difficult problem, they can conference in a colleague to help. They must not be stingy with their knowledge, and must recognize that by sharing their knowledge, they are raising the bar of expertise across the genealogical industry.

From my experience, we already have many of these individuals in the industry. The digital record age does not replace or remove the need for onsite research with online research. What it does is increase the need for professional consultants who are willing to redefine themselves to keep new researchers moving in the right direction.

Social Media Sabbatical and FGS 2011

The transition to Inflection (Archives.com) has been a good one, but like everything else, I like to ramp up quickly, so I guess you could say that I have been taking a sabbatical from my usual social networking activities (at least the highly visible ones). These included Tech Tip of the Day, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook (for the most part), and this blog.

What, you may ask, happens when one takes a vacation from social networking? I acquired dozens of friend requests, followers, and likes without doing a thing, which was unusually flattering, but I also caused some associates to think I wasn't interested in being "linked-up." It also helped me recognize the enormous value of face-to-face interactions in managing relationships rather than relying on wall posts or tweets.

As Joe Godfrey promised at NGS 2011, I have been leading a great team to acquire great new record collections for Archives members. If you didn't get your free memberships at NGS through the end of 2011 so that you will be able to enjoy the benefits of these new acquisitions. If you have been overlooked, I have a small number of these demo memberships that I will pass out on a first-come-first-serve basis in honor of the upcoming 2011 FGS Conference. Please tweet me at fsanne with the two hashtags #FGS2011 and #ArchivesCom for your free demo membership if you didn't receive one at NGS. Please check back regularly with your membership to watch us grow throughout 2011. We have some wonderful things just around the corner for our users. Also, don't forget to stop by the Archives.com booth at FGS to meet our Product Managers for exclusive tips and tricks, and to try out Archives.com.

Speaking of FGS, yes, I will be speaking this year on a subject near and dear to my heart: Court Records. As one who is known for her technical knowledge, it is so refreshing to be able to speak on a topic I have spent almost two decades researching. I am excited for some very unique elements that will be included at FGS this year and look forward to seeing you there! FGS 2011 may look and feel a little different than it has in the past, so you won't want to miss it!

Joining Inflection - the Un-Corporate World

As many of you may know, I recently accepted the position of Director of Content Development with Inflection's family history entity, Archives.com. As many of you may also know, I am not the type of person who gives praise where it isn't due. If I give a compliment, you know I mean it.

With the capstone event of RootsTech, which I had the privilege of developing, chairing, and MCing, I felt I had accomplished precisely what I came to FamilySearch to do. When a friend who knew I was exploring new opportunities called to ask if he could offer my name to Inflection for consideration, I agreed. I interviewed with other companies as well, but ultimately made the decision to move to Inflection.

Some co-workers and friends asked me why I chose Inflection over other opportunities. Here is a company with NOBODY in it who has genealogical expertise, and they have accomplished more in the way of building an underlying structure for guiding beginners than any other product I have yet observed. Sure, the content is still young, but content will grow, just as it has with every other company out there. What's more, they are committed to providing their services for such a small amount, even as they continue to grow!

I can't even begin to describe all of the great things about this company. Calling it a company somehow seems very inaccurate. While every business has its weaknesses, there is something steady and calm, sure and confident here. I know I have said it before, but while this company is brimming over with brilliant and vibrant minds, there is something so sincere and honest that it eliminates the veritable "Clash of the Egos."

I could describe the workplace, the daily nutritious meals catered for the employees, the hearty conversations in a comfortable lunchroom, the meditation room complete with hanging air plants strung from the ceiling, the healthy snacks and drinks available to all at anytime (no quarters required), the weekend sailing club that builds even more unity among employees, the whiteboard walls and pillars where employees are free to express their creativity...

All of this sounds so hollow and shallow without the heart of the company. Perhaps it's something in the reverse-osmosis filtered water that provides the rich soil for innovation and creativity. I can't quite put my finger on why and how this all works. Respect? Trust? Humility? Integrity? Equality? Official titles like, "Thinker?" It just works, and I am so grateful to be a part of it.