Lately, I have been more and more excited about what is going on at ancestry.com. While I remain a novice at genealogy—trying to fill in the first five generations, I am more excited than ever about the ability to grow in my ability in family research.
Three things specifically related to ancestry.com are making this possible.
1. Ancestry.com is building their social media framework. This is a tremendous boost for me. I will never be in the big league of genealogy—I simply don’t have the time to devote the time needed to get there. However, the big leaguers can still make an impact on my research by the growing stack of seminars and classes that ancestry.com is putting on the web. Last week was a perfect example. On their livestream feed, they broadcasted a live seminar from San Francisco—that I also can go back to the archives on livesteam.com and watch a replay. They also are building a robust youtube channel.
2. Ancestry.com have also recently released Family Tree Maker 12, which will sync with the ancestry.com tree that you may have. This is huge! I do much of my leg work from other computers, but I have my software on my home computer (ie. libraries, traveling to my parents, etc.) Now, I can have the relevant information anywhere. Also, they are building an ancestry.com Android app—so then I can always have it with me.
3. The third reason for my excitement is the continued growing of the amount of data available on the web. Next year, 2012—the latest available census will be released. The Census is only released to the public after 72 yeas…so the 1940, will be this year. There is also a constant flood of information being put on the web. One of the good things that can happen with a company as large as ancestry.com is that they can put more and more on the web faster—adding to the database already out there.
These are exciting times indeed!