www.itowler.com

Well, I think that I have everything pieced back together again.  itowler.com has been put back together and seems to be working as intended.  I have been able to move the old site over to Drupal, and still keep everything that I wanted.  The "new" Drupal version has the following features:

• Blog postings..
• Family tree (although it is a stand alone part of the site now)
• Pictures (Can only be seen by registered users)
• Contact form
• My CV (old site did not have that)

One of the biggest hold ups for me was how to put my pictures back online.  Drupal has several modules that allow you to create photo albums, but only one really seemed to do everything that I wanted.  I tried out several different options, but I have settled on a solution and it seems to be working.  That being said, it appears as if I have lost a few of my pictures.....  I will have to recover them (not sure how....)

I did it wrong

During the upgrade to the family tree portion of the website, I discovered that I have been entering census data the wrong way for 2+ years now.  Genealogy data is commonly stored in a file called a GEDCOM.  There is a GEDCOM standard, and it has 4 levels.  You can enter sources as either a top level or a 2nd level item.  I have been entering them as "top level" sources, and while they can be, it is better to enter them as 2nd level items.  What does that mean?  I have a lot of work to re-do, by going back and correcting 2+ years worth of data.  So....it will take some time, but it will get done.