Where to post my gedcom online [for free]

[RHB]

Good Afternoon,

I would like to post my gedcom on line. I'd like a free site, the ability to keep my data private, and I want to retain 'ownership' of my data. I have heard of Tribal Pages and Onlinefamilynetwork.org There may be others.
Does anyone have any comments or recommendations?

RHB

PS BTW, I Love Reunion!

[B Jansen]

Re: Where to post my gedcom online [for free]

Good Afternoon,

I would like to post my gedcom on line. I'd like a free site, the ability to keep my data private, and I want to retain 'ownership' of my data. I have heard of Tribal Pages and Onlinefamilynetwork.org There may be others.
Does anyone have any comments or recommendations?

RHB

PS BTW, I Love Reunion!

Hi RHB,

I do exactly what you want by creating web cards in Reunion and hosting those in a file in my public Dropbox folder. Then I add a ROBOTS.txt file to keep it from search engines. Then only those I share the link with can view it.

[RHB]

Re: Where to post my gedcom online [for free]

Interesting. I'll have to figure out how to do that. Never done web cards before…. or a ROBOTS file. Never even heard of that [I'm self taught on the computer and there's a lot I've never heard of!

Just thought of another question: will this way to do last, more or less, 'forever'? I'm trying to post something that will last for free even after I'm gone. I'm uncertain if there will be anyone around to keep it going. I certainly wouldn't want to commit someone to pay to keep it on a website; that's why I'm looking for 'free'….How long do Dropbox files last?

[Larry Davies]

Re: Where to post my gedcom online [for free]

Interesting. I'll have to figure out how to do that. Never done web cards before…. or a ROBOTS file. Never even heard of that [I'm self taught on the computer and there's a lot I've never heard of!

Just thought of another question: will this way to do last, more or less, 'forever'? I'm trying to post something that will last for free even after I'm gone. I'm uncertain if there will be anyone around to keep it going. I certainly wouldn't want to commit someone to pay to keep it on a website; that's why I'm looking for 'free'….How long do Dropbox files last?

Hi RHB,

I would be inclined to post it in a number of places - RootsWeb, Ancestry, WikiTree, MyHeritage and I'm sure there are others. Some of these sites charge for access to their data content, but display trees to everyone for free. You may also want to add your information at FamilySearch.org. Some of these sites could cease to exist in the future, but I can't imagine all of them going away.

Larry

[mjashby]

Re: Where to post my gedcom online [for free]

Interesting. I'll have to figure out how to do that. Never done web cards before…. or a ROBOTS file. Never even heard of that [I'm self taught on the computer and there's a lot I've never heard of!

Just thought of another question: will this way to do last, more or less, 'forever'? I'm trying to post something that will last for free even after I'm gone. I'm uncertain if there will be anyone around to keep it going. I certainly wouldn't want to commit someone to pay to keep it on a website; that's why I'm looking for 'free'….How long do Dropbox files last?

Sorry, but I'm afraid you are probably seeking the impossible and may need to seek a balance of features which is best likely meet your needs.

By way of explanation:

- Any registered online account, whether free or not, including Cloud Services and Family Tree 'Websites', is subject to a legal contract between the service provider and the individual account holder. If either of those parties 'ceases to exist', becomes totally inactive, or the service provider decides to withdraw the service, then the contract is terminated and any hosted data will be erased after a specified period.

- Will a free DropBox account last 'forever'? Quite possibly not. That is totally dependent on the business owners; and there are also bound to be business changes over time in such a volatile and competitive marketplace. - Even Ancestry is supposedly up for sale at present.

- Will free services remain free? Only if they can be funded/meet their running costs and the providers of those services see a continuing 'business' benefit, e.g. see the WikiTree page http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Community_Membership : "WikiTree's only source of revenue is advertising on public pages. Therefore we can only afford to provide these free services to genealogists who share our mission to grow a shared family tree that will someday make genealogy free and accessible for everyone." The only 'free' service that I'm aware of that you could possibly describe as 'permanent' would probably be FamilySearch Family Tree, but I presume that option doesn't give you the level of privacy you desire.

- Also, you will probably find that the majority of 'free' services are either subsidiaries of larger commercial businesses, e.g. Geni.com is owned by MyHeritage, or also have their own fully featured commercial product, e.g. Tribal Pages, which they are quietly steering you towards. If you read the terms and conditions for the sites you will probably find that either they either expect individual accounts to be accessed 'regularly' or, at the very least, they require current contact details if the account is to remain 'live' (e.g. see Tribal Pages Terms and Conditions), so don't meet your 'beyond' requirement.

Having described many of the obstacles, I'll try to offer the positive suggestion of a relatively new service that I've recently become aware of which you could explore, as it does offer a totally free service and the option of fully privatised trees: ZoomPast at http://www.zoompast.org - However, I would probably describe this as a rapidly evolving rather than a fully functional service at present. Looks to be progressing in an interesting direction, but will it meet your desire for 'permanence'?

Good luck in your search, whatever direction you decide to take.

Mervyn

[donworth]

Re: Where to post my gedcom online [for free]

I have copies of my data on the following:

www.wikitree.com (direct ancestors) - refereed "one tree", free
Example: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Worth-454

www.ancestry.com (full tree - no notes) - free (sort of - you can put your tree up but only subscribers can see it unless you specifically invite a non-subscriber to your tree.)

www.familysearch.org - free.
There are two options here, both publicly searchable - their new refereed "one tree" called Family Tree or their Pedigree Resource File (which is just your own tree complete with sources and notes) These have the advantage of being stored in Granite Mountain FOREVER! The only downsides are that PRF is hard to update and slow to show up after submitting the data and they don't provide the submitter's name and email address. But it will persist long after you're gone because the LDS church will keep it going. (I am not a Mormon myself - but I love what they do to support us genealogists).

Instructions for submitting to PRF here:

https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Pedigree_Resource_File

A sample record for my great grandfather, Dyson Worth here:

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.2.1/SYK6-LV2

www.findagrave.com (direct ancestors with graves linked together child to parents)
Example: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...267608&df=all&

www.myheritage.com (direct ancestors) - free for 250 person records but you have to subscribe to search the trees

www.bishir.org (my own personal tree website using TNG - costs about $60 a year - lots more capability including adding photos, documents, etc.)
Example: http://www.bishir.org/gen/getperson....&tree=donworth

Don

[B Jansen]

Re: Where to post my gedcom online [for free]

No matter where you post it, do NOT include Personally Identifiable Information on living people!

[RHB]

Re: Where to post my gedcom online [for free]

I am overwhelmed by the kindness of all responders: the time you have taken to respond, the detail of your suggestions. I am most appreciative.
Thank you.
RB