Freepages

Here's a link to a nicely executed website on the RootsWeb Freepages of Ancestry.com.

I found the link on Facebook.  As far as I know it doesn't have information about any names that I study.  I'm sharing because it's a very good example of what can be accomplished on Freepages when someone knows what they are doing.

Ron Johnson's Genealogy on Freepages

Dick Henthorn
23 November 2014

HenthornFamily Wiki

John Henthorn (Hinthorn) & Margaret Downard

On 4 February 2013 I added a link to a RootsMagic website I created for John Henthorn and Margaret Downard. Descendants in this family all spelled the surname, Hinthorn(e). Living descendants live in McLean county, Illinois, around Independence, KS and on the west coast.

This RootsMagic website consists of 1166 files. The source file resides on my old desktop computer which has some issues. After the website was created I used the freeware program, 7-Zip, to compress the files into one Zipped file. I used my Gmail account to send this file to myself, thus in effect, moving the website components from the old computer to my laptop computer. I unzipped the compressed file onto the laptop and checked to determine whether I could open the website.

The RootsWeb Editor was used to create a folder for johnhinthorn on my FreePages account. Then I used the FireFTP application of Firefox to execute the batch upload of the 1166 files to the new folder.

The link to the website is on the Henthorn Family Websites page of the HenthornFamily Wiki.  

This project has been on my To-Do List for several years. In order to achieve this goal many components had to be in place and I needed to understand and master how to use various software tools.

If you'd like to go directly to the website, rather than visiting the Wiki, here's the link.

John Hinthorn

Dick Henthorn

\4 February 2013

John Henthorn Website

Goal

Yesterday I achieved a long-standing goal, going back many years. I uploaded, to my FreePages space, a small website that I create in 2006 using  Personal Ancestral File (PAF).  As of February 1st, 2013 this file will be available for viewing for the first time on the Internet.

Components

The website is made up of approximately twenty HTML files, generated by PAF. This includes two sets of seven files each plus the graphic images for the navigation buttons and the cloud/sky page background.

Problems Encountered

I encountered three problems during the project yesterday. The Email address shown on the first page of the website was out-of-date. There was a one line Introduction at the top of the first page that needed to be brought up-to-date. And, the blue sky and cloud background for each page didn't work, even though the images of all of the buttons appeared. I discovered the name of the background file was listed as Clear Day Bkgrd.jpg in the HTML of each page. The uppercase letters in the file name caused the problem. Fortunately I am able to read some HTML code. After I identified and understood the problems I used the RootsWeb Online Editor, for the first time, to make the necessary modifications to the already uploaded files.

The Family

The website shares information about the family of John Henthorn and Frances Low. We believe that John Henthorn and his brother, James Henthorn, were the original Henthorns in the colonies, first being found in Maryland.

Link To The Website

The link to the website will be located on the Henthorn Family Websites page of the HenthornFamily Wiki. Here's the link in case you'd like to visit from this blog page.

John Henthorn

Next Website Project

Now that I understand the process and steps involved in uploading an entire genealogy website I'm ready for another project. My current genealogy program is RootsMagic. This program also can create a website. I intended to upload a website created by this program and make it available in the same way. It may be of interest to some to compare the styles of the two websites.

Dick Henthorn

1 February 2013

Conger

On the Stories page of HenthornFamily Wiki I posted a 50-page PDF document titled, A Collection of Documents about Members of the Conger Family, compiled by Richard E. Henthorn and Robert Guilinger.

I apologize for the fact that a blank page appears in the document. This was probably caused by the program I was using to generate the PDF.

I'm gathering GIF images that I used years ago on some of my webpages. I renamed some of them to group similar buttons in sets. Some of the images have already been uploaded to my RootsWeb Freepages space and you will see them on pages I have been sharing on the Wiki. (I used one of those images on this page.)

For years I've wanted to upload a set of webpages created by one of my genealogy programs to a website to learn more about the steps in that process. I now have the tools in place to carry out this project. I located a set of PAF pages suitable for the experiment. I'll make this my next combined Freepages and HenthornFamily Wiki project.

31 January 2013

FreePages Project

FreePages Project

This morning I posted a link to the Civil War Diary of William Lock Henthorn on the HenthornFamily Wiki.  I create a new page, Stories, on the Wiki where links to stories will be posted.  Look for Stories in the left hand column.  The Civil War Diary file resides in my FreePages space on RootsWeb.  When you view the webpage you'll discover that there is a navigation button at the bottom of the page which you can click to return to the Stories page on the wiki.

To assist in navigation from by Google blogs a link to the HenthornFamily Wiki was added to the sidebar "Links" area of the four blogs.

As time and my interest permit I plan to upload other files, created prior to the Fall of 2008, to the Internet thus making them available once again to anyone who's interested.

As always your feedback is welcome.

You can send me Email at: Dick.Henthorn@gmail.com

22 January 2013

FreePages

My FreePages Project

I'm working on my RootsWeb FreePages account. 

1) accessed my FreePages using the RootsWeb editor
2) accessed the FreePages using FireFTP
3) in the Misc community (the default area) created sub-directories for "testing" "henthorn" and "graphics"
4) uploaded nine GIF files I used in my genealogy HTML to "graphics"
5) uploaded one HTML file to "testing"
6) created a folder structure on my computer for storing the components

I believe this completes all of the housekeeping steps that needed to be accomplished.

Next, I'll edit one of my old HTML files from the days when I had a genealogy website on AOL to get it ready for upload to FreePages.

My current plans are to grant access to anything I post on FreePages via the:
HenthornFamily Wiki
Further testing will be necessary to determine whether this will work or not.

Mr. Dickie
20 January 2013

Using Google Search with RootsWeb FreePages

Ancestry.com provides free space where you can build a genealogy website.  The service, part of Rootsweb, is called FreePages.

Here's a Google search command you can use to find pages with the word Henthorn in the FreePages area of RootsWeb. To look for another surname simply replace Henthorn with the surname of interest. (Note: It is important to put a space (blank) between the "/" and the surname Henthorn. This may not evident in my post, depending on how the long search term appears on your screen.)

site:http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ Henthorn

As of 18 January 2013, when I tested this search there were over 800 hits.

18 January 2013

Rootsweb - Freepages

In the fall of 2008 AOL dropped free website support.  I'd shared a genealogy website there for several years.  There was enough warning to allow me to archive my webpages to a 4Gb thumb drive before the final day.

Subsequent to this disaster I've modified some of the pages and put them back on the Internet on three different free Google applications: Blogger, Sites, and Groups.  I've also shared some of the information on the Monroe County, Ohio genealogy website.  Many of the pages didn't lend themselves to easy modification.  As a result those are still on the thumb drive and not shared.

Recently, I've begun to think about this problem again.  I think I can use the Freepages on Rootsweb to share my information, without too much modification to the HTML.  Using Freepages requires a basic knowledge of HTML, of FTP and of how to set up the folder structure on Rootsweb.

If you are interested in learning more about Rootsweb Freepages take a look at the links I list below.

Exploring Rootsweb on YouTube

Rootsweb Home Page

Freepages: Free Unlimited Web Space

Freepages Genealogy Directory

Freepages Help & FAQs

Freepages Log On

Freepages Agreement

Webmaster's FAQs

Freepages - Help-L Archives

Websites Hosted by Rootsweb

Rootsweb Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

FTP Instructions

Freepages - FTP Instructions

Submit Your Family Tree to WorldConnect

21 August 2012

RootsWeb Freepages

I'm considering signing up for a Freepages account on RootsWeb. This seems like it might be a good idea because I am already familiar with using FTP to maintain the pages of a county genealogy website on RootsWeb. I'd probably use the Freepages to return more of my pages from my old AOL website to the Internet.

I'd be interested in feedback from anyone on the pros and cons of using Freepages. 

Also, has anyone discovered tutorials by anyone other than RootsWeb and Pat Geary?