Donny Osmond and Cyndi's List. A connection.

Now that Donny Osmond has been named as one of the keynote speakers for the joint Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and RootsTech 2015 conference, I have a story to share. It's not exactly my story but I have permission from Cyndi to share it.

I am pretty sure you all know about Cyndislist.com. Many years ago at a genealogy conference, Donny Osmond was there to promote a genealogy service. He was introduced to Cyndi Ingle of Cyndi's List. Of course, she was very happy to meet him. The surprise was that he was impressed to meet THE Cyndi of Cyndi's List.

Fast forward to this upcoming February and, as mentioned in my previous post, Donny is the keynote speaker for Saturday morning, February 14th during the conference. PLUS Cyndi is one of the FGS speakers for this upcoming February 11-14, 2015 huge family history event.

I wonder if we can orchestrate another meeting of these two nice people who love family history?

Register for this great 4 day event at the FGS conference website https://www.fgsconference.org/. Then for just $39 more you can add the RootsTech side. A win win win win.

Evernote for genealogy!

Cyndi Ingle of Cyndislist.com has a new blog. It's dedicated to those of use who need help with Evernote. I am a new user of Evernote to help me keep track of many things, add notes and images and so much more. I am happy she has this new help for those of use who are technologically challenged at times.

Check out her new blog at http://evernotegenealogy.postach.io/

She also has links to many other websites that offer help on her Cyndi's List.

She is a dear friend but I don't get any remuneration for talking about this new venture. Go Cyndi!

5 bits of recent genealogy news for 2013 and beyond

The world is full of genealogy news in the last several days.

1. Who Do You Think You Are?" has been renewed for a second season on TLC! See the news release on Variety!
   
2. FamilySearch and Ancestry.com recently announced a joint agreement to begin a 5-year effort to digitize and index more than 1 billion records from around the world. Read more here.
   
3. There is still time to register for the The Minnesota Genealogical Society’s October 4-5, 2013 “6th Annual North Star 2013 Family History Conference.” It features Steve Luxenberg
   Steve, a Washington Post associate editor, who wrote Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret plus many breakout sessions with other great speakers. Click here for details.
    
4.  Spots are still available in several courses at the week-long Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, January 12-17, 2013. The early bird savings ends October 31st.  Click here for more details. The American Records intermediate course which I coordinate has some very special components including one-on-one consultations, hands-on computer session, and some surprises that you won't find out about until the classes begin!
   
5. CNN.com reposted a story from Real Simple magazine that talks about the growing interest in family history searching. You may recognize the name of the experts the author consulted, including my friend, Cyndi Ingle Howells of Cyndislist.com.
   

Do you love Cyndi's List as much as I do?

Now you can be reminded of this remarkable website when you sip hot chocolate, tea, coffee, when you dream your research plans during the night, as you decorate and marvel at your Christmas tree, or share it with others when you wear your Cyndi's List t-shirt or sweatshirt to the library or grocery store. One person who purchased the pajamas said she is looking forward to great research ideas forming as she sleeps!

Cyndi Howells, the Cyndi who does all the work for us on Cyndi's List, announced the opening of the Cyndi's List Boutique this week!

"I'm pleased to announce the launch of the new Cyndi's List Boutique on CafePress.com. You'll find t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, mugs, glasses, and even Cyndi's List pajamas and a stadium blanket to snuggle up with as you do your research from the comfort of your home! We plan to have more genealogy-related graphics available in the boutique in the future. Get your Cyndi's List gear today! Or put it on your wish list and tell Santa he can find it here: http://www.cafepress.com/CyndisList

The Cyndi's List Boutique on CafePress is your one-stop shopping place for Cyndi's List genealogy t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, computer items, and more!"

Check out Cyndi's List here and "like" the CL page on Facebook!

Cyndi's List Launches a New Web Site

In case you haven't heard the great news! Cyndi Ingle Howells has done a major upgrade of Cyndislist.com to celebrate 15 years of service to the genealogical community. As I blogged earlier, she does this by herself and I bless her everytime I make use of a link from her site.

EDGEWOOD, WASHINGTON (June 6, 2011) – Cyndi's List is proud to announce a newly upgraded web site. With improved navigation, a custom database, and a custom administrative interface, the upgrade means that everything will be quicker and easier for both visitors and for the site's owner and administrator, Cyndi Ingle Howells. The upgrade has been done by fusionSpan of Maryland. Their staff worked closely with Cyndi to make improvements and to implement new technology and new ideas designed specifically for Cyndi’s List and for the genealogical community.

Part of the upgrade was made possible by donations from generous users of Cyndi’s List. To date, 20% of what was accomplished in the project was thanks to them. Donors have been listed on the web site.

What's New with the Upgrade:

* The front page of the Cyndi's List site has a rolling genealogy news feed and a link to The Cyndi’s List Daily, a daily dose of family history news as tagged in Twitter and Facebook. Start each day with the
front page of Cyndi's List and read the current genealogy news stories.

* The links are now contained within a database and pages will be dynamically loaded on each visit.

* The custom database and administration interface means that maintaining the link list will be much easier for Cyndi, which ultimately benefits the user with faster and more frequent updates.

* The new interface means that the backlog of uncategorized links can be processed much faster. The goal is to get the entire backlog done by the end of this year.

* New links will be reviewed, approved, and categorized within 24-72 hours after submission by visitors.

* Updates made to Cyndi's List will be immediately available to the public.

* Previous to the upgrade, the "What's New" page and mailing list post contained only new links submitted by visitors. The new "What's New" page and e-mail will contain those, as well as links added to the site during the day by Cyndi, *and* existing links that have been updated throughout the site (new addresses, updated descriptions, etc.).

* Across the site links have been labeled with graphics as "new" or "updated" when appropriate. With the upgrade these will now be text-based notations (easily spotted in green), which means that you can
search on a page for "new" or "updated" with the Edit>Find function in your web browser.

* Now sub-categories within a category heading each have their own page. And each page displays 20 links, with pagination in place to go to the next page and so on. This means there will be a lot less scrolling through long pages as in the past. Shorter pages mean faster load time in the browser as well.

* Intuitive navigation at the top of the category makes it easy to find your way to previous category headings.

* The number of links within each category/sub-category is displayed at the top right on each page.

* Each of the U.S. counties (more than 3,100) now has a designated page of its own.

* URLs (addresses) for the pages have changed so bookmarks, favorites, and links to Cyndi's List will need to be updated.

* Opportunities to shop, support, or donate are highlighted on each page.

What Has Stayed the Same?

* The category and sub-category names are all the same.

* Related Categories are highlighted at the top right on each category.

* The layout and format of the links are the same.

* The policies, procedures, and disclaimers for maintaining the link list are the same.

* The Cyndi's List Mailing List will still distribute a daily What's New e-mail and a daily Link Activity e-mail. However, the What’s New e-mail will contain information about all new and updated links.

* You can still follow Cyndi's List on Facebook and Twitter.

* The purpose and intent of Cyndi's List is to be a free jumping-off point for your daily genealogical research.

* Cyndi’s List remains free for everyone to use just as it has for the past 15 years.

* This is still just a one-woman show!

"I started doing genealogy research in earnest back in 1998 and Cyndi's List has always been one of my very favorite websites. It is on my 'Go To' list because I always find so much good information there.” --Kay F.

"I've relied on your website as THE best resource on the 'net to help with my research..." --Jan J.

"Where can you get at all things genealogical in one fell swoop? Everyone knows it's CyndisList.com. Every genealogist who uses the web MUST use Cyndi's List." --Polly K.

About CyndisList.com
CyndisList.com is the world's largest one-woman family history resource, with more than 300,000 categorized links for genealogical research. For more than 15 years Cyndi's List has helped hundreds of thousands of people with their online journey to trace their family history. The site averages 275,000 unique visitors and 5,000,000 page hits every month. Cyndi's List has won numerous awards and consistently remains one of the top genealogical portals for beginners, intermediate, and veteran researchers.

Friday, March 4th Cyndi's List on Geneabloggers Radio

Tomorrow (Friday, March 4th) watch Who Do You Think You Are? with Lionel Ritchie on NBC TV and then tune in to Geneabloggers Radio. WDYTYA begins at 7 pm CST. Geneabloggers Radio is online beginning at 9:00 pm CST (10 EST, 8 MST, 7 PST).

Thomas MacEntee is the host and his featured guest is Cyndi Howells, the creator and workforce behind the popular Cyndislist.com which turns 15 on Friday.

Click here to learn more about Thomas' show that you can listen to online. Thomas explains more about the show and how to join in the listening. You also have the opportunity to chat live with other listeners or to call in with your thoughts on WDYTYA and Cyndi's List.

If you are on Facebook be sure to "like" Cyndi's List at https://www.facebook.com/CyndisList?ref=ts.
Fellow genealogists are trying to get her to 15,000 likes by the end of March 4th. It's already at an amazing 12,035 as I write this!

Cyndi's List -- what would I do without it?

I am sitting here putting together some syllabus/handout materials for upcoming presentations. It struck me how many times I cite Cyndislist.com in this material. Every genealogist should know about it. It links me and my audiences to thousands and thousands of websites related to genealogy and history.

On 4 March 2011 Cyndi's List will turn 15. I know she has a teenage son and this means two teenagers in her house. (Oh I don't envy her! However, I know her and she does quite well with both teens!) I went to her site and found these statistics. 

• Cyndi's List has been online since March 4, 1996.
• In the beginning there were 1,025 links. Today there are more than 291,000.
• This site continues to be one of the top research spots online for genealogy.
• Cyndi's List has always been free for everyone to use.
• To date, Cyndi's List has been supported solely by advertisements.
• This site is in the process of a major upgrade, the first since 1998. 
• Goals for upgrading would include easier use for both the administrator and site visitors, making adding and updating links a quicker process for everyone. Improved navigation and other features are also on the to-do list. 

For all these years she has been doing this for all of us. Out of her own pocket with just a bit of assistance from advertisements. It's time we thanked her and did our little bit to support her upgrade efforts. She doesn't know I am campaigning for this. But our donations will help her achieve the upgrade more quickly. Cyndi's List is a one-woman business and she spends most of each day maintaining the site. It's a full time job she does for us and for which she receives no paycheck other than a bit from the advertising. I can't even begin to imagine all the time it takes to post new links, correct old ones, and double check everything.

I did ask her a few questions and found out it costs $300 a month to host the web site on a commercial server. The upgrades will be done by a professional web development company to make the site an easier thing to maintain and to use. 

If you go to the site, you can send her a bit of money to help out with something that will benefit us all. I am going to do just that. www.cyndislist.com

Thank you, Cyndi!

Cyndi's List of family history websites is 14 years old today!

Right at your fingertips -- more than 270,000 live and quick links to websites related to family history. How long would it take to you compile such a list? And sort each link into the proper category. And check the link to make sure it is what it should be. And update the link when the webmaster or site owner changes their URL. And change the description of the website when that needs to change. And. And. And. Well, breathe easy. You don't have to do this work -- it has been done for us at Cyndi's List.

Today is the 14th anniversary of this list. Cindy Ingle Howells began this list of helpful websites for herself and for fellow members of the Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society in Washington State. Lucky for the rest of us she began to share the list with other genealogists.  

The links are categorized. Among the 180+ categories are: adoption, Africa, Beginners, Canada (and by province), Census, City Directories, Ellis Island, Genetics, Lutheran, Military, Newspapers, Organizing Research, Passports, Poorhouses, Schools, Scotland, Ships and Passenger Lists, nd divisions for many other countries and for each of the states in the United States. Bookmark this list now and use it as the great tool it is for finding helpful websites.