Writing stories that link to my family tree

[Gambrill]

I had 7 years of research data, and wanted to share it with my extended family ... especially younger members.

I wanted something that was lively - not just who married who, and a bunch of dates.

I have old photos, newspaper clipping and an interest in maps and social history. That became the starting point.

Here's my recently launched first attempt:

mylookbackintime.com/Home.html

It is a mix of a traditional website and a sort of "blog" or on-going saga.

Any ideas / suggestions for enhancing ??

John G

[cristol]

Great start for a "first attempt" Gambill
It's a bit late now over here, but I look forward to reading through it properly tomorrow. But I love that you were convinced that your family had always lived in hastings...soon to be proved wrong. i had exactly the same thoughts about Barnet.....wrong ! The site looks like a fun way of telling your story and sharing your treasures. Wishing you luck with your project. well done.
Lesley

[Lizzy9]

Hi John G,

What a lovely idea, I am very impressed. It's a wonderful legacy for your descendants. I haven't read it all yet, but what I've seen so far makes a very interesting read and cannot fail to enrapture your young folks.

Well done.

Lizzy

[v.wells]

What a fabulous site, John G! It is very inspiring to those who would like to create a tree "story" site. You are indeed very gifted and truly blessed for having Nellie Reed in your life to pass down all the photos and memories. Good job!

[susan-y]

John..

What a super site and great photos. A lovely legacy for your family. I shall continue to read more later . Thank you for sharing with us .

Sue

[thecouch]

Great job and good first attempt and its creation!

How did you go about putting the website together? (ie. did you hire someone?/do it yourself? /software used? etc - I like how its professional looking but not too overwhelmed with information - I think that's what makes your combined pictures &visual aids/'blog' approach so appealing. Really enjoyed your photos too.

Thanks so much for sharing John G.

Cheers,
thecouch

[Gambrill]

the couch asked ... How did I put the website together?

Six months ago I had no website experience - I took a short course on building websites. I own a Mac computer, and was informed there is built-in software on my computer for building a website without the need to get involved with coding. The program is called iWeb - there are lots of websites out there showing examples of what others have done. I struggled at first, learnt a lot from just experimenting, and now feel more comfortable with the software. I enjoy working with old photos - the detail in old b/w prints is amazing!! Hope this helps. John g

[N@alie]

John

That's really good, a nice clean site and easy to navigate.

One suggestion though, I would suggest you hide your email address as currently it's easy for them to find. Basically, email spambots crawl the web via search engines to find and extract email addresses from webpages and once they've got an email address it will be inundated with spam.

There are many easy ways of disguising an email address, or writing a 'Contact Me' form. I'm not familar with web design on a Mac, but assume it's still using HTML. If so, www.
hide-email-script.com/ is a free Java script you could try.

Hope this helps.

[CanadianCousin]

I, for one, am very impressed! I like the way you've blended text and images, and used documents, maps, adverts, etc... in addition to family photographs. I also appreciate how you've mixed the 'bare facts' with the story of your research, and invited the reader to imagine the circumstances in which your ancestors found themselves. Perhaps best of all, the stories are short enough for someone to read a couple in a brief visit and come back for more as time allows. I think this would especially appeal to younger family members.

I can't think of any particular suggestions for improvement at the moment, since I've only had one quick visit so far.. Perhaps as you get more stories, involving more families as you move back in time, you might provide various navigation options between stories - e.g., let reader's follow a particular family through multiple generations, or look at several families living in the same time period, or group ancestors by occupation, etc...

What a great inspiration for those of us who keep meaning to do this sort of thing "one of these days". Thanks so much for sharing this.

Tim

[Gambrill]

....... I can't think of any particular suggestions for improvement at the moment, since I've only had one quick visit so far.. Perhaps as you get more stories, involving more families as you move back in time, you might provide various navigation options between stories - e.g., let reader's follow a particular family through multiple generations, or look at several families living in the same time period, or group ancestors by occupation, etc...

What a great inspiration for those of us who keep meaning to do this sort of thing "one of these days". Thanks so much for sharing this.

Tim

Thanks Tim for the input - I really like your suggestion of creating navigation so that visitors can thread their way through stories, following different subject threads (just as you suggest). I'm already getting some fresh ideas - so glad I bounced the website off "British-Genealogy" members.

JohnG