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An Internet-Based
Genealogical Reference Library for
the United Kingdom & Ireland
by
Malcolm Austen, Vivienne Dunstan, Brian Randell,
Alan Stanier, Phil Stringer, and John Woodgate
Many genealogists use computers to store and analyze information, and to
generate neatly formatted reports and family trees, as well as for such basic
tasks as word processing. However growing numbers are now equipping
themselves with the means to connect their computer to a telephone and hence
to a data communications network, and so make use of their computer to
exchange "electronic mail" with other computer users, and obtain information
from electronic data repositories.
In this last year in Britain there has been much publicity in the media about the
Internet. The Internet is in fact really a "network of networks", i.e. the means
by which a set of hitherto separate computer networks can used as a single
very large network. (There are direct parallels with the way the telephone
system developed. The first telephone users were connected to just a single
telephone exchange, and could talk only to people who also happened to be
connected to that particular exchange. Only later were all the telephone
exchanges interconnected so that any telephone subscriber could talk to any
other subscriber.)
The rate of growth of the Internet is amazing - it is doubling in size every two
years, and is currently estimated to have a total of perhaps 30 million users
worldwide - including, needless-to-say, a large number of genealogists! One
current reason for this growth is the invention of the World Wide Web. This is
an Internet-based service (often referred to as WWW) which enables
documents and databases held on computers all round the world to be linked
together into what appears to users to be a single huge multi-page document.
This "document" can in fact include not just text, but also pictures, sound and
video. Users can browse through it, copying or printing off anything of interest
to them, without any need to be aware of the fact that multiple computers and
sophisticated computer networks are actually involved. They move from page
to page in this huge document using "links" (typically represented using
underlined words and phrases), which if selected by a user, and "clicked" on,
will cause the current open page to be replaced by the page referred to.
The present WWW system with its very user-friendly (free!) software is little
over two years old, but already there are many thousands of computers
connected to it. Between them these computers contain an immense amount of
information. This information remains under the control of the individuals and
organizations who own these computers, but now they have a convenient way
of allowing - should they so wish - users all over the world easy access to their
information.
This year, aided by a growing number of other volunteers (few of whom have
ever met each other face-to-face), we have been setting up a free information
service for UK and Irish genealogy on the World Wide Web. This service,
which we call GENUKI, already involves computers in Belfast, Colchester,
Manchester, Newcastle Oxford and St Andrews, and provides links to many
others. However from the users' point of view this fact is irrelevant. Rather,
users find that the GENUKI service provides them with an ever-growing
online reference library that is organized in much the same way that the LDS
Family History Library and its Catalogue are organized.
GENUKI was first made available for general use in late March 1995, since
when its development has continued apace. It was the subject of a brief
published description that appeared in the June issue of Family Tree
Magazine; a much lengthier account of its design was published in the
September issue of Computers in Genealogy. And in August 1995 it received
a Top 5% of All Web Sites award.
We have initially concentrated on providing information of relevance to the
UK & Ireland as whole, or to the one of the six major constituent regions
(England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands).
Now we are gradually building up the county-level information, and starting to
get information at town/parish level. The types of information we have
generated or obtained include general tutorial information, details of major
archives and their holdings, book recommendations, transcribed information
leaflets (e.g. over a hundred from the PRO), and indexes or transcripts of such
material as town directories, monumental inscriptions, gazetteers, etc.
The GENUKI activity is now obtaining very welcome encouragement and
support from the Federation of Family History Societies and the Society of
Genealogists, as well as from a growing number of local family history
societies. This is through the provision to us of information such as basic
membership details, coming events, library holdings, current computer
projects, journal contents listings, and detailed publications lists. (The local
societies that have so far joined in include: Buckinghamshire FHS; Catholic
FHS; Clwyd FHS; Cornwall FHS; Derbyshire FHS; Devon FHS; Dyfed FHS;
FHS of Cheshire; Hillingdon FHS; Huddersfield & District FHS; Manchester
& Lancashire FHS; North of Ireland FHS; Northumberland & Durham FHS;
and Oxfordshire FHS.)
A recent analysis of GENUKI usage, over a period of 125 days, shows that the
number of times that the Service has been accessed has risen fairly steadily
from about 250 to nearly 450 times per day on average. These enquiries came
over 70 different countries in all, and from nearly 9,000 different users. (All
these figures are in fact underestimates, since not all accesses can be
monitored.)
To make use of this new service it is merely necessary to have a suitable
computer, means of access to the Internet, and appropriate software in the
form of a program called a "Web Browser". Such software is available free for
IBM-compatible PCs, Apple Macintoshes, and UNIX systems. When so
equipped, all that is needed to start making use of GENUKI is to give the
address of its starting page (http://www.genuki.org.uk/).
This page is shown in Fig. 1. Selecting and "clicking" on the underlined phrase
"British Isles" will result in the user being presented on his or her screen with
a new page, the top part of which is shown in Fig. 2. A few more selections
and clicks and the user will be able to reach the page describing the PRO
Information Leaflets whose text is available online. Part of this page is shown
in Fig. 3 as our final example. (All these figures have been taken directly from
a computer screen and show, albeit only in black and white, exactly what a
user would see.)
It is our hope that GENUKI will, through the aid of the various societies now
becoming involved with it, gradually develop into an invaluable resource for
all genealogists interested in UK & Irish genealogy - readers of Family
Researcher are therefore cordially invited to try it for themselves, and to make
their own assessment of its present and likely future usefulness.
