Genealogy web sites are proliferating. It seems like everyone is uploading the results of his or her genealogy research to a personal home page hosted somewhere on the Internet. I see hundreds of such sites every month. Many of them are very attractive although a few are less so. If you are "HTML challenged," you might want to see what tools are available to automate the process of creating web pages in HTML (hypertext markup language) suitable for uploading to your personal home page.
If you have a modern genealogy program, you probably can create standard HTML files directly from that program. However, you may not like the way it creates web pages; perhaps you want to experiment, using features not found in your genealogy program. You also might be using an older program, incapable of creating standard HTML pages.
Mike DeBacker has created a Windows genealogy program that may be exactly what you are looking for. With the cute name of UncleGED, his program will:
If you have a modern genealogy program, you probably can create standard HTML files directly from that program. However, you may not like the way it creates web pages; perhaps you want to experiment, using features not found in your genealogy program. You also might be using an older program, incapable of creating standard HTML pages.
Mike DeBacker has created a Windows genealogy program that may be exactly what you are looking for. With the cute name of UncleGED, his program will:
- Extract genealogy data from standard GEDCOM files and produce beautiful web pages to share with your friends and family (or with the entire World Wide Web).
- Compile your web pages to a compiled HTML file (.chm) for enhanced viewing and portability.
- Use a cascading style sheet (.css) to further customize the look of your web pages.
UncleGED does not produce GEDCOM files. In fact, it simply reads GEDCOM files produced by other programs, including Family Tree Maker, Legacy Family Tree, RootsMagic, AncestralQuest, The Master Genealogist, and many other programs. See your program's user’s guide for the exact instructions. UncleGED can easily handle files of more than 10,000 individuals.
Once you have a GEDCOM file stored on your hard drive, you use UncleGED to convert the GEDCOM data to HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the standard format for displaying information on the World Wide Web. The newly-created HTML files are then also stored on your hard drive by UncleGED.
Once the HTML files are stored, you will need to upload the files to your personal home page using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or whatever file transfer method your hosting service requires. For assistance with transferring the files to your personal home pages, you will need to contact the company that provides space for those pages.
To see some examples of web pages created by UncleGED, go to:
http://gatheringleaves.org/uged_samples/examples/css1/fam056.htmlNotice there is a wide variation in colors, fonts, and layouts. You can create any of these as well as many more variations.
http://gatheringleaves.org/uged_samples/examples/css2/fam056.html
http://gatheringleaves.org/uged_samples/examples/css3/fam056.html
http://gatheringleaves.org/uged_samples/royals92_family/index.htm
http://gatheringleaves.org/uged_samples/royals92_persons/index.htm
http://gatheringleaves.org/uged_samples/examples/chrono.htm
http://gatheringleaves.org/uged_samples/examples/locations.html
UncleGED requires any one of the following: Windows 2000 Service Pack 3; Windows 98; Windows 98 Second Edition; Windows ME; Windows Server 2003; Windows Vista Business; Windows Vista Business 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Enterprise; Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Home Basic; Windows Vista Home Basic 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Home Premium; Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Starter; Windows Vista Ultimate; Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition; Windows XP Service Pack 2
It also requires Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 and about three megabytes of disk space for the program plus enough room to store the HTML files that are generated.
UncleGED is an excellent program for converting your genealogy data to HTML format. Such data can then easily be placed on your own home pages, visible to everyone on the World Wide Web. It is easy to use and creates attractive Web pages. Best of all, the price is right: free.
Mike DeBacker is to be commended for giving a free gift to genealogists. For more information about UncleGED, or to download the program, go to http://uncleged.codeplex.com/
