Make a tree
Most of us have tried some of the relatively new websites out there that allow us to connect in some way to others. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and many others.
I understand the draw. Each time you check your e-mail, someone else wants to be your friend and there are a ton of updates about people you have linked with to keep you engaged.
I have to admit I'm still old school about friends. I would rather get together for a chat than go online to stay in touch. Even though this is my preference I can understand the attraction to stay e-connected when time is a valuable commodity.
I stumbled across a site the other day called Geni.
The idea of the site is pretty simple. You start by building a family tree (you enter your parents, spouse, kids, brothers, sisters etc.). You can then add the e-mail addresses of family members and they can add to the tree (you all get access to the same family tree but from their point of view).
I have always wanted to get our family tree built somewhere (I am concerned that allot of our family history will be lost in the next decade or two). I thought I'd give this site a try.
The interface is very well done but I am always skeptical that a site will be able to do the things it's supposed to.
I was pleasantly surprised about this site.
On Saturday I entered my immediate family info in (about 10 names), and their e-mail addresses to help build the site. By Monday I had 82 family members added (all by other people).
Each family member had added people, as well as e-mail addresses, and those new people added people and so on. It only took 4 days to add 82 people!
It's not done; I'm guessing it will be well over 100 by the end of this week.
Another nice feature about the site is you can add relevant details about each person. All the details you would want to know about your long lost great grandfather for example. Very valuable, irreplaceable information.
It used to be that one person would take on the responsibility of building a family tree (and that's probably why many never got made). This technology reduces that burden. No one minds adding a few people here and there. If everyone in your family does that, you could have a complete family tree (going as far back as possible) in weeks.
My favourite part about building this tree was a nice note from my almost 70 year old Aunt in England about 30 minutes after I added her and her e-mail address to the site. She let me know how much fun she was having with the site and had already added 20 names (and so on, and so on).
The technology allows any family member in the world with internet access to get involved in a project and stay connected to each other in a fun way. You receive an e-mail, for example, when someone in your tree is going to celebrate a birthday. There are real marketing opportunities here since there is a built in trust (in most cases) to the people you are linked to. It looks like Geni is working on some of these opportunities.
What if we all went in and did this? Perhaps you'd eventually find out you are related to that person down the hall. Okay maybe that's not always such a good thing :)
