Normal Registration = Why Bother?

You are already registered as a guest.  Why bother to register normally?

 

If you register normally (it’s free, and simple), then: -

1.                            You’ll be able to put your own data into FamNet.  This gives you many advantages, not least the ability to find others who are also researching your families.  See the notes below “Ten Good Reasons for Putting Your Data in the GDB”.

2.                            You will get a newsletter from us from time to time giving news about FamNet, such as the development of new features and the availability of more data

3.                            You will be able to contact other users, and they will be able to contact you, so that you can share information.

 

How to register.  Just click the “Register Normally” link, and follow the simple dialog.  You will be asked to agree to the site conditions, and enter your userid, name, email, and a password.  You may choose to create a more detailed profile by giving more information about yourself, but this is optional and you may choose to skip or defer this step.  That’s it.  You’re now registered as a standard user, and the full facilities of the GDB are available to you.

 

Ten good reasons for putting your database into FamNet

1.                            By publishing your database in FamNet others can easily find your public records.  They may be able to fill in some gaps for you, telling you more about your ancestors, or correcting facts that you have got wrong.  Contacting you is easy, unless you said that you don’t want to be contacted. 

2.                            In FamNet you publish your database without loosing control.  Compare this with the usual approach, where you email your GED to another genealogist or place it on a website for others to download.   If there are problems – errors, omissions, or privacy breaches – you cannot fix them, as your GED is now being propagated around the world without any chance of recall or correction.  In contrast, within FamNet others can see your records, and they can they link them to their own to create an extended tree, but they remain your records.  At any time you can change them, even remove them.  Such changes instantly change the records of anybody who has linked to your records because they don’t have their own copy, rather they are linking to your record

3.                            The records you publish need not be merely the basic names, dates, and family relationships that are exported in GED files.  You can add all your scrapbook data – documents, photos, even audio, making each record a rich description of the subject’s life.

4.                            When a database is published the system looks for duplicate records with other databases.   Through these duplicate links you can find others who have records about your people.   Perhaps it’s merely another copy of the same information, but sometimes there are facts and notes that are completely new to you. 

5.                            Through the Compare and Synchronize tools you can easily compare your records with the duplicates, importing new facts and corrections, and scrapbook links, into your records.  When you import new facts in this way, the GDB automatically creates a source record documenting where you obtained this information.

6.                            By linking your records to another’s tree you gain new lines of ancestry and descent without creating a copy to become obsolete as the original is updated.

7.                            You become part of the FamNet community, providing value to others just as they provide value to you. 

8.                            You create a secure copy of your precious family research, guarding against the possibility that your research will be lost if your own computer or paper records are damaged or destroyed.  The risk of FamNet’s data being lost is much lower than that your own records would be lost.  They will not be lost when your children sort out your things after your death.

9.                            Because FamNet can determine whether a record should be public or private, you do not have to be careful to omit records of living people from your database.  Eventually all your records will become public as they come within the scope of the 100 year rule, but in the meantime records of living people are private, hidden from everybody except you and those to whom you have given permission.  FamNet is a good way of sharing your story with your family, while keeping private information private. 

10.                      By providing records to FamNet you earn a subscription credit, calculated in proportion to the number of records that you add (2000 people gives you a year’s subscription).