Genealogy This Week - 6 March 2010
Our weekly compilation of interesting new tools, resources and stories for genealogists:
Searching for Ancestors in Kent – Volunteers for the Kent Archaeological Society have transcribed many thousands of memorial inscriptions found on gravestones, tablets, tombs and monuments from towns and villages throughout Kent. New transcriptions continue to be added to the site on a regular basis. This is a wonderful site for anyone with ancestors buried in Kent. Access is free. [Link]
Tag Galaxy – Now here is a specialty search engine that is truly different and potentially of great use to genealogists. Designed to search through photographs found on the popular photography website Flickr, Tag Galaxy is nothing short of amazing. If we told you the search method was based on clicking on planets revolving around a star, would you believe us? This is a great tool for searching for pictures of people and places and an extremely fun site to use. Simply enter your search term (like a name) as a tag. You have to try it! [Link]
Tracking Tweets in Real Time – Here is another amazingly cool website called True Colours of Twitter. It tracks tweets by subject matter in real time. It displays the results as floating bubbles that pop up as new tweets becomes available. Not only is this a useful tracking tool, it can be a fun way to liven up a quiet evening. [Link]
Data Tagging a Headstone – Anyone who has spent time transcribing headstones may be interested in knowing that a US firm called Objecs is launching wireless-enabled data tags for headstones. Anyone walking by a tombstone with one of these data tags can read the information on the tombstone from any properly configured mobile phone. As far as we know, this is a first. You can see pictures of how this works by clicking on the link. Is it just us, or does this seem like too much technology? [Link]
Stealing IDs from Genealogy Websites – One of the downsides of sharing genealogy data online is that criminals can use it for identity theft. This article from a Welsh newspaper describes how thieves stole IDs of babies who had died some years ago. The thieves collected the information they needed to make fake ID claims by trolling genealogy websites. How sad. [Link]
