Tobin Family Website

This morning I started to play with some of the untapped features of the Tobin Genealogy Website.  I currently use a great program that my friend “Mr Papa” recommended to me last year, called The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding, or TNG.  I use TNG to display our genealogy data on the Internet, and use Legacy Family Tree on my desktop for entering/editing the family tree.   The thing I like about TNG is that it makes use of a database to display my genealogy information on the fly, when queried (as opposed to having to have a bunch of pre-created pages).  I particularly like the look and feel of the program, as it is very professionally done. 

The key feature that I set up this morning is the use of Google Maps to display relevant genealogy information on a map.  For example, for a given person’s genealogy record, I can now display all of the locations associated with events of that person (i.e., birth, death, residence, etc.) on a google map nested within the display of their record.  As an example, you can view my genealogical record at the site and scroll down to the map.  On the map graphic, there will be pushpins that correlate with the “events” from my life (as annotated in my genealogy record).   To the right of the graphic will be a listing of the events associated with each pushpin.  Click on one of these pushpins (the one on the right, not the one on the map graphic), and a separate window will open with a Google map of that location!  From here, you have a lot of interesting options.  You can zoom in/out, move around the map, change the view from map to satellite to terrain data, overlay photos of the area, and even show street views (if/when available).  It is a pretty neat feature that makes the genalogy information that much more fun to view.  So far, I have only geolocated a relative few of the places in my genealogy database….but over time, I will geolocate all of the records in my database.

I continue to enjoy working on our genealogy.  I need to ask my parents to provide me with some more information about their lives that I can capture in the genealogy site.  In fact, I need to expand that to a wider audience of my extended family.  The Legacy software provides data forms on which I can use to survey/collect this type of information.  So far, I have largely collected factual information such as names, dates, and locations.  I would also like to gather more historical information about occupations and other interesting anecdotes.  It is a fun hobbyto work on (when hockey season is over!).

Tags: Genealogy, Website Update

If you frequent theTobins.org, you may have noticed some subtle changes recently.  For starters, I simplified the look and feel a bit by going from two “sidebars” (the column of information on the right side of the page) to a single, wider sidebar.  I thought that the two sidebar approach was a little cluttered, and it didn’t always display correctly on computers with lower video resolutions. 

Secondly, I added paragraph indents to the posts and adjusted the post font to hopefully make it a little easier to read.  Third, you may have noticed that I have added a “Guestbook” of sorts at the top of the sidebar where you can easily leave comments.  The latest comments will be displayed in synopsized form on the sidebar, with the complete list of full comments available at the Guestbook page. 

Lastly, I have added a new Photo Gallery plugin that replaces the old gallery that I used to use.  The new gallery is a Wordpress Plugin coded by Alex Rabe that is entitled NextGEN Gallery.  It is a much simpler approach (in my opinion) than the Gallery2 application that I used to use.  I like how it integrates into Wordpress and provides a nice, simple, aesthetically pleasing display.  You can see it in action by going to the Photo Albums page and selecting an album.  ONce there, you can view photos by thumnail or as a slideshow.  The slideshow has some nice music that I have selected to play in the background.  If you don’t like the music in the slideshow, you can simply turn it off by clicking on the speaker icon inside of the slideshow image.  You can also see it in action on the Tobin Fine Arts page, where I have included an album of Eric’s paintings and another of him painting.  I can also easily insert links to albums right inside of a post, like this:

Eric Tobin at Work

A few candid shots of my brother Eric at work behind the easel. Additional information about Eric is provided below, courtesy of the Visions of Vermont Art Gallery in Jeffersonville, VT, one of many fine galleries in New England featuring his works.

7 Photos

That is about it for website changes.  Nothing too radical, but hopefully a little improvement over the last design.  I still wish that the Genealogy site were better integrated within Wordpress, but I like the application too much too change it! 

Not too much going on in the way of family activity.  The kids have been having a lot of sleepovers with their friends as the new school year approaches.  Most have been held here at the house, although, Delaney did get invited to a sleepover at a friend’s house this past Wednesday.  Tonight, Ben’s friend Mikey is spending the night.  Last weekend it was Mikey and Alex on one night and Delaney’s friend Madi on another night.  It is kind of fun having the extra kids around, as long as they behave.  The biggest issue is trying to get them to go to sleep.  We have been fortunate that the kids have made good friendships here in Virginia after moving up from Florida.  For awhile there, the kids were pretty melancholy about the move. 

This coming week, I will be going through a 4-day retirement course/seminar at Bolling AFB in preparation for my planned retirement next year.  I have been told that this is a “must do” course about a year out so that I can plan appropriately.  I am curious to see what all they cover in the seminar, and it is starting to set in that I will be retiring soon.  I will have 20 years of active service on 15 Oct 2009, and I don’t plan to stay in much beyond that date.  I haven’t decided on an actual date yet, but I am thinking Oct/Nov.  It seems like a long time away yet, but I will have close to 50-days of terminal leave and an additional 20-days of permissive leave that I will be allowed to take.  That accelerates the date by a little over 2-months.  Of course, I still need to determine whether I will transition into a civil service (Government) job, a “beltway bandit” type of support contractor job, a major defense contractor job, or something entirely different.  I am still weighing the pros/cons and will zero in on what I want to pursue within the next 6 months.  Bottom line, by this time next year, I may be pretty well in the final stages of retiring from active duty. 

Karen is planning to work as a substitute teacher again this coming school year at Delaney’s school (Ben is moving up to middle school).  The job she had last year as a teacher’s assistant at another elementary school dried up with their budget.  Although the pay was less to be a teacher’s assistant, Karen enjoyed staying with one class and not being the transient teacher (that kids like to take advantage of).  The beauty of substitute teaching, however, is being able to say no if you have other things going on that day.  From that perspective, it is a lot more flexible.  Based on past experience with the school, she could work almost daily as a sub if she wants.  The demand for subs is high, and there is a paucity of good subs out there.  So, if she wants to work, there is usually no shortage of opportunity!

Finally, the election cycle is starting to enter the final stages.  This morning, Barack Obama selected Joe Biden as his running mate.  He is probably as good a candidate as any of the others out there.  I find it funny, however, that when Biden was still a candidate himself he railed on Obama’s utter lack of experience.  I think he made a comment about how the Presidency is not a place for “on the job” training.  He even went so far as to say that McCain was a much better candidate than Obama in terms of experience.  It will be interesting to see how Biden handles questions about prior statements now that he is on the ticket.  I am anxiously waiting to see who John McCain picks as his running mate.  I personally would like to see Mitt Romney or Tom Ridge on the ticket alongside McCain, but it very likely won’t change how I plan to vote. 

Tags: Family Update, Politics, Website Update