Saturday, May 7, 2016

Cousin Russ helps me share a new idea for Genealogy Collaboration

Cousin Russ Worthington
Cousin Russ (Worthington) hosts a Genealogy Community on Google+ and is quite a creative and generous family history resource! He assists DearMYRT with her frequent Google+ Hangouts on Air, he serves as the "official Go-To Guy" for Family Tree Maker, is a teacher and presenter of family history lessons to the genealogy community, is quite "tech-savvy", and produces many training videos and tutorials on his own YouTube channel. And best of all, he's a very nice man, loyal supporter and trusted friend. 

In a recent conversation with Russ, I mentioned how excited I was to discover Trello after Lisa Alzo introduced me to it a few months ago. I've been thinking of ways I could use this wonderful tool in my family history research. Russ demonstrated how he and DearMYRT have been using it for quite some time with their Hangouts on Air. Our interest lies in making collaboration between cousins, family members, and other interested people easier and more accessible.

I told Russ of an idea I was developing into Trello Boards and shared my initial attempt with him by adding him as a Member to my boards. With some refinement at his suggestion, I prepared a Family Board that represents my Margheim great-grandparents, the parents of my dad's dad. You can see a picture of the Jacob and Katie Margheim Family Board above.
The Trello and Family Collaboration video Russ
Worthington and I did. 
Russ has been eager to share this idea with the genealogy community so he organized a brief interview with me yesterday and opened a "Google Hangout on Air" to record the interview. When the recording was done, it was immediately uploaded to his YouTube channel and to his Community on Google+. 
My first Hangout on Air, breaking in my
new headset and learning a lot
in an interview with Russ Worthington.
Thank you for your patience, Russ!
I invite you to click here and watch the 15 minute interview. It may stimulate some ideas in your mind that can help you collaborate with your family on your family's history. You don't have to be a genealogist to share old family photos, stories, or treasures, and to appreciate the lives of those to whom you owe your heritage. And Trello is easy, flexible and fun!

After my husband Larry Jamison watched the interview last night, he came up with an excellent idea for another Trello board. Stay tuned for my next post with details about that. 

6 comments:

Hilary Gadsby said...

I watched the hangout and remembered I had signed up for Trello a while back.
I have gone back to look at it today and now I am using it as part of my organisation strategy for getting my files straight and seeing what I have on my computer.
Each surname has a board and I am adding the birth marriage and death registration indexes as a start.
Each family has a list of its own.
I am going to add the certificates with the registrations indexes and any christenings and burials will have another list.
These lists will help backup my research logs.

Michelle Ganus Taggart said...

I was so impressed by how "calm, cool and collected" you were Becky. You two did a really good job. It helped me to hear why you do what you do with Trello and it gave me some more ideas of things to try. As I've said before, I am still very much in the learning phase and my boards are not quite ready for prime time like yours are, but I'm working on it and they will get there. I like how user friendly Trello is. Thanks for all of your help!

Hilary Gadsby said...

Becky I am going to be publishing a blog post tomorrow linking back to your blog posts and what I have been doing with Trello.

Becky Thompson said...

That's exciting, Hilary. I'm anxious to read your post. Thank you for letting me know and for sharing! Hope you're having as much fun with Trello as I am.

Jana Iverson Last said...

Becky,

I want to let you know that your blog post is listed in today's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2016/05/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-may-13-2016.html

Have a great weekend!

Becky Thompson said...

Thank you very much, Jana. That was really a lot of fun.