DearMYRTLE, the down-to-earth, daily genealogy columnist of the Genealogy Forum (AOL Keyword: roots or myrtle), announces the expansion of her internet presence to include her own ".com" site.
DearMYRTLE has been onlining since 1985 when she first logged on with the grandparent of AOL, and started working with the "Your Family Tree" forum on Q-Link. She began her regular 7-day-a-week column in 1995 which was then available only to subscribers of AOL. In 1999, her columns were also crossposted on her aol.com web site.
"Thanks to my readers, the first nine months of my web site have been very successful. It will now be easier to find my genealogy lessons and daily columns on the web by simply going to the new site:
www.dearmyrtle.com
Myrt continues, "Responses to articles such as the 1881 British Census Index, which features scanned images of real index entries, demonstrated clearly that my readers love graphic examples of genealogy topics, not just written words. The problem has been, that such graphic intensive presentations take up a lot of space on a web site.
Thanks to the wonderful folks at RootsWeb.com, I'll now have the space to provide graphic examples to amplify discussions of genealogy resources. Typically, the online version of a column will have "thumbnails" of a document, which, when clicked, will show up nearly full screen, in a very readable format.
For instance, I am currently working on a detailed "how-to" article on Meyers Orts, the old commercial gazetteer of Germany. Adding graphics to the web page version of my column allows me to do more than talk about this valuable town-locating resource. This column will provide concrete examples of the old German-style handwriting and cryptic abbreviation codes, which are most challenging for even experienced researchers."
Having more space will allow DearMYRTLE to go forward with plans for multi-media how-to lessons and expansion of the
Family Heirlooms Archives Project.
DearMYRTLE is a sponsor of several genealogy mail lists and two counties for USGenWeb, and
serves as webmaster of the Weiser Family Page, in addition doing to her own web page design. Myrt writes a regular column in
Everton's Genealogical Helper Magazine on the Genealogy Forum. Recently, DearMYRTLE and
Heritage Quest Magazine reached an agreement to feature a new series titled "The Joy of Genealogy." A related segment is audio-webcast weekly on
Generations: Find Your Roots at talkspot.com. Myrt will speak at the May 2000 National Genealogical Society Conference in Providence, RI on "Creating Your Own Web Page."
"The internet," says Myrt, "will become THE best place to store archive copies of your compiled genealogy data AND documents. This makes for an interesting mix -- ancestors from our distant past with futuristic technologies!"