Louis Kessler’s Behold Blog

#UTPCruise - These are all the blogs I know of that have posts about the wonderful cruise/conference I just returned from. If there are any I’m missing, please let me know and I’ll update this list.

(I hope you don’t mind Randy, but I like your format and I’m following it)

Updated to include posts up to 22 March 2016.

1) Louis Kessler on Louis Kessler’s Behold Blog

• 72 Talks on the 10th Unlock The Past Genealogy Cruise (2 December 2015)
• UTP 10 – Day 0 (13 February 2016)
• UTP 10 – Days 1 and 2 (15 February 2016)
• UTP 10 – Days 3, 4 and 5 (19 February 2016)
• UTP 10 – Days 6, 7, 8 and 9 (22 February 2016)
• UTP 10 – Days 10 and 11 (24 February 2016)
• UTP 10 – Days 12, 13 and 14 (27 February 2016)
• UTP – Days 15, 16 and 17 (1 March 2016)
• UTP – Day 18 (2 March 2016)
• Unlock the Past Genealogy Cruise 10 Blog Compendium (8 March 2016)

2) Alona Tester on Lonetester HQ

• 4 Months ‘til we Geneacruise!! (14 October 2015)
• Counting Down to the 10th Unlock the Past Cruise (11 January 2016)
• 10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Days 1-3 Embarking, Roses and Glow-worms (19 February 2016)
• 10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Days 4-6 Genealogy, Crazy Wind and Step Record (23 February 2016)
• 10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Days 7-10 Chocolate, Bagpipes, Mountains and Talks Galore (26 February 2016)
• 10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Day 11 Hummer, Didgeridoos, Sunshine (27 February 2016)
• 10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Day 12 Behind the Scenes (29 February 2016)
• 10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Days 12-14 Genealogy, Friends and More Genealogy (2 March 2016)
• 10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Days 15-19 Koalas, Dolphins and a Helicopter (7 March 2016)

3) Gould Genealogy (Alona Tester) on Genealogy & History News

• On the Sea Again … (12 February 2016)

4) Shauna Hicks on Shauna Hicks History Enterprises Genie Rambles

• Genealogy Cruising Days 1-6 with Unlock the Past around New Zealand and Southern Australia (26 February 2016)
• Genealogy Cruising Days 7-12 with Unlock the Past around New Zealand and Southern Australia (7 March 2016)
• Genealogy Cruising Days 13-19 with Unlock the Past around New Zealand and Southern Australia (9 March 2016)
• Review of 10th Unlock the Past Genealogy Cruise to New Zealand and Southern Australia (11 Mar 2016)

5) Shauna Hicks on Diary of an Australian Genealogist

• Genealogy cruising and NFHM 2016 – Genealogy Notes 5-11 Feb 2016 (10 February 2016)
• Genealogy Cruising & Trove Funding – Genealogy Notes 12-26 Feb 2016 (25 February 2016)
• Genealogy Cruising and Back Home – Genealogy Notes 27 Feb – 7 Mar 2016 (6 March 2016)

6) Judy Russell on The Legal Genealogist

• Being transported (8 February 2016)
• Falling in love (13 February 2016)
• Down the coast (15 February 2016)
• Hobbiton! (17 February 2016)
• Oh, New Zealand… (19 February 2016)
• Oh New Zealand… again… (21 February 2016)
• Farewell to New Zealand (23 February 2016)
• Australia Fair! (28 February 2016)
• Australia Fair: Adelaide (2 March 2016)
• Home… (6 March 2016)

7) Victoria Green on Campaspe Genealogy

• Genealogy Cruising (18 January 2016)
• Post-Cruise Update (18 March 2016)

8) Jennie Fairs on Family Leaves and Branches

• Unlock the Past Cruises (22 March 2016)

We had a photo taken of all the Geneabloggers on the cruise:

Back Row: Victoria Green, Eric Kopittke, Shauna Hicks, Judy G. Russell, Jan Gow, Louis Kessler
Front row: Jennie Fairs, Maureen Trotter, Diane Foster, Helen Smith, Alona Tester
[photo by Allyson Luders, printed with permission]

A couple of weeks ago, Dick Eastman posted an excellent article with the same title. It received over 70 comments, including a couple of mine.

During the just completed Unlock The Past genealogy cruise, we had a panel discussion on a similar topic: Future Proofing Your Genealogy. Helen Smith coordinated a very lively (but friendly) disagreement between Paul Blake, Jan Gow, Judy Russell, Shauna Hicks and me about the best way to do so.

Dick’s article, the comments, and our panel brought up a number important topics of relevance to genealogists today that I found I have strong opinion about.

1. Many of the comments to Dick Eastman’s posts were about choosing a specific program. In the light of the end of Personal Ancestral File and The Master Genealogist and the near demise of Family Tree Maker, is any program really safe to use?

I agree with Dick’s conclusion, which is: "When looking for a new program for any purpose, find one you like and use it. However, never lock yourself in. Always have an exit plan in mind"

The exit plan to me for genealogy software currently is GEDCOM. Yes, many programs export GEDCOM imperfectly, and many import it imperfectly as well. But most of the data is there in some form and is retrievable. Bug the developers to make sure the data is exported properly and completely. If some data isn’t exported, don’t use that feature until there is another way of retrieving it, e.g. through a direct database read, plugins, or an API (Application Programming Interface) allowing access from other programs that use the API.

2. Genealogical software is not the be-all and end-all for your data. What is more important is your source data. You are sourcing all your data, aren’t you? Even if the names, facts, dates and places get trashed with your genealogy software or a hardware failure, you or someone else can always recreate them if the sources are available.

3. The way to future proof your genealogy, as I see it, is through replication. Make your work available in as many forms as possible. In Perth Australia a couple of days ago, the Bell Tower had a time capsule of DVDs to be opened in 2100. My thought was that I hope they supply the DVD player, spare parts, and the computer to play it on in the time capsule, or they may not be able to play it. Even then they might not if electricity advances to see the end of 240 volt power. Paper stored properly is thought by some to be better than hard disk, DVDs, PDFs or any digital format, but is not necessarily so. Paper is subject to fire, flood, theft and the worst: unknowingly or mistakenly being trashed especially by your child or grandchild who may not realize what they have done until it is too late.

So I see the solution is to replicate your work and source material in as many forms as possible. Make copies, digitize, backup, distribute to family and archives, self publish, add to online databases, put it on your own website, post stories and your research findings in a blog, donate to archives and name some interested party in your will to acquire what you leave. To me, it is the magic of  replication through the internet and through physical copies that provides the best assurances that your work will be remembered and used.

The March 2016 issue of the British magazine Your Family History has included on page 92, a review of the current version, 1.2.0.1, of Behold. It is a very polite half page report that gives a good overview of Behold’s reporting capabilities.

“Create a fully indexed and hyperlinked report with no effort whatsoever using Behold Genealogy”

I cannot reproduce the full text here because the magazine owns the copyright, so I’m including a blurred image of the review. If you’d like to see the review (plus the other interesting articles in that issue) you should be able to find it for a short while at your local magazine news seller.