 |
June 7, 2000 - Vol. 1, No. 11
|
 |
Nu? What's New? - News About Jewish Genealogy from Avotaynu
Gary Mokotoff, Editor
They say that some day all the software we will ever use will be on the Internet
rather than in our PCs. This philosophy has just become a reality for the genealogical
community. Two months ago, a fellow named Alan Eaton came into Avotaynu's offices
to describe a genealogy project he hoped to launch shortly. The project, in our
opinion, is the next step--possibly the ultimate step--in placing family trees on
the Internet. Current online databases collect family trees but make no attempt
to link them. Eaton's plan is to link all the family trees they receive to create
One Great Family (OGF). Individuals will maintain their own trees, but when a common
link is found either by submitters or planned tree-matching programs of OGF, the
submitters can collaborate and reduce all the information to a single record containing
all that is known about the matched individual. If there is contrary evidence, all
information can be retained by the collaborators. The theoretical goal of OGF is
to have a single family tree that includes every person who has ever existed.
The system was announced at the recently held National Genealogical Society convention
in Providence, Rhode Island. It is still in Beta test but plans call for it to be
available to all interested parties at the end of July. There will be two services,
one free and the other for a membership price of $74.95 per year (first year 50%
discount). The company has not defined the difference between the two services as
of yet.
A good description of One Great Family is at their site:
http://www.OneGreatFamily.com/Pressroom/eastman06-21-00.htm
|
|
|
Source |
|
|
