History of Database and Web

Anyone looking at this web may wonder what is going on as it looks very disorganized and has no rime or reason. To understand why it is like this, one has to look at the history of my database and web.

I purchased my first genealogy program, Family Tree Maker, on 28 Aug 1996 and started from nothing so that is the earliest time frame. By July of 1997 the database had grown to a size that it needed to be published so that others would be able to benefit from the work done. The first publication was done using GED2www and the database was at RootsWeb. This database was updated regularly and after a few years, a person contacted me and complained that I had information on her family that was not completely hidden from her ex-spouse and requested that I remove the information. This was impossible to remove one family so I looked for a new platform to publish from and chose WorldConnect that allowed me to completely remove all living persons from my database that were born after a certain year that I controlled. This worked well until dec, 2017 when WorldConnect was hacked by someone and was taken down but still allowed to run for the next two years but no updates could be done.

In parallel with the database, I developed a Web that first started at my Internet Service Provider(ISP) which was an organization called Home that was later purchased by Shaw. Shaw allowed me to have 20 MB for Web pages but that was soon used up and there was a need to expand. To allow more web storage, I was able to use a my Freepages account at RootsWeb so the main web page was at Shaw with the additional pages at Freepages. This worked for several years until Shaw announced one day that they would no longer be providing Webpage support so my total Web had to be transferred to Freepages. At first, I thought that this would be a terrible task as it would require reorganizing all of my pages. However, after a little thought, I came to the conclusion that If I made a folder called Shaw-Arnie in my Freepages account and that folder contained all of the files that had previously been at Shaw then all I had to do was to modify the links between the two folders that used to be from Freepages to Shaw and make them from Freepages to Shaw-Arnie. This was accomplished with little to no major difficulties and the total system still worked a previously.

The two sections shown above cover the database and Web pages which is quite simple, however, the two are interconnected as the database at WorldConnect used to allow HTML links within the notes for an individual and the database also allowed me to have links to my webpages. Since the database structure at WorldConnect had a static format for referring to an individual in the database that was controlled by the name of the GED file and ID number of the person then this allowed a given person to have a fixed URL that did not change when then that database was updated. Thus, the web and database were totally interconnected and each depended on the other for additional information like images, maps, photographs, etc. After the hack in 2017, Ancestry.com decided to rewrite the software that would allow person to access the information and they chose a new system that was dynamic where the URL for any person in a database changed every time the database was updated so the links between a Web to a given database would no longer work and were all broken. They also decided to create a new living person filter that filtered out anyone in a database that did not have a year of birth and was younger than 150 years if they did not have a death date. This made their new system completely useless for any publication function so a new method had to be found.

Since I have been a Educator for all of my working life, after I retired in 1999, I found that many people were contacting me about genealogy problems that they needed help with. After a few emails to help them, I came to the conclusion that was was needed was a series of webpages that would explain the problems and give solutions or what this really came to was how to do research at a high level when the person you were teaching was at any level of understanding. This meant that pages would be developed but then you would have to expand on them or add further information as you found out that a different level or approach was required. Like trying to write a book that is meant for all ages and not just one age group.

It is now 24 plus years that I have been doing genealogy research but I have been doing research for over 60 years. Research in any area requires the same process and what I used in my Professional life is no different that what I use today. You have to be able to defend your point and not use speculation. Anyone using my database is warned that they are responsible for checking the accuracy of my data as I may have mistakes as I am sure there are many in my database. I'm not aware of the errors as if I were, I would correct them.

This is only a very brief history as the database and web is more like a biography of my life and others together with the or total work history thrown in as we progress from day to day and year to year.

Last updated 05 November 2020