www.itowler.com - Ian's Home on the web

So I have been working on the family tree site a bit lately, and I have made a few changes.  Some of the changes are minor and some are not.  To start with, I have changed the theme to one that suits my liking a little better.  

I have also worked on the "landing page" or Homepage of the site by adding a few new items.  The first thing that I added was a "Welcome and Hello" block.  I am not sure why it never occurred to me before, but I have never had one of these up until now.  The Welcome and Hello block appears on the top left hand side of the screen, and features a Towler / Toler crest.   It explains a bit about the site and what is going on.  One of the features I like about the block is that I have it setup to show you the most recent "numbers" for the family tree, I.e. how many families, Individuals etc.  These are dynamically (automatically when there is a change) updated which is cool.

I have also started to use the built in "News" feature.  It just keeps a running list of "News" items if I decide to put anything in there.  I will work on using it more in the future.  

One of the biggest changes I have made to the site, is I have now made my sources visible.  In the past you needed to be logged in to see my source records, now, I have them exposed for all to see.  I did this for a couple of reasons.  The first of which, is I feel strongly that genealogy in general should be shared.  If its not shared, then it just gets lost again.  Second, I am pretty proud of my work, and want others to be able to see the support for the tree that I have assembled to date.  Third, I think that it can only lend more "credibility" to my site, and hopefully will encourage others to collaborate with me on the tree.

Currently the only reason that you would need an account on the site is to see add more info, make corrections etc, and to see living people.  With that said, I still keep the tree fairly private so that even if you have an account, and are logged in, you can only see those living people that are closely related to you, and not all living people.

The last change that I made was to upgrade to the latest version of WebTrees which was recently released.  Things have moved around a little, but not to much.  In all I think that the move from PGV to WebTrees was a good move, and I am glad that I did.  It seems that WebTrees is moving faster, and making great strides to increasing the speed of the software.  The update to Webtrees should make the Media portion even better.  Here is what the press release from the development team of WebTrees had this to say: 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (JUNE 7, 2011)

webtrees version 1.2.0

The webtrees development team is pleased to announce our newest webtrees release, version 1.2.0. An open source multi-lingual genealogy software program, webtrees can be found at www.webtrees.net. This newest version (1.2.0) includes a redesigned header and navigational sidebar, additional and improved privacy options, increased use of CSS for standardization and customizing, and significant speed enhancements for lists and media handling. With more than 36 bug fixes since the most recent minor release (April 10, 2011) and 2,024 code changes, webtrees is under very active development.

Working from standard GEDCOM (family tree) files, webtrees uses readily available web-based resources - an http server, PHP and MySQL, running on any platform - to present your family tree via an online collaborative genealogy application.

webtrees has been designed to maximize the efficient and effective use of a combination of third-party tools, design techniques and open standards. And best of all, this powerful genealogy program is FREE. webtrees comes with an intuitive interface with configurable tabs for personalizing display option, and offers multimedia, lists, charts, reports, calendars and search capabilities, as well as add-on modules for extending features. Too, it has voluminous online support via built-in help menus, a well-documented WIKI and a responsive online support forum, including a demo version of webtrees. As an open-source program, its strength of code and ease of use is enhanced by the many users who contribute comments, criticisms and code toward its improvements.

The webtrees development team invites you to visit our webtrees site at www.webtrees.net to download your free copy of this outstanding genealogy solution now and get your relatives involved in building your family tree.

 

 It should be a bit faster that it was in the past which is a good thing.  I am looking forward to testing out the new interface...  

Feel free to stop by and let me know what you think.