whanau.name

Frequently Asked Questions

• This site? - Who, Why, What and When
• Creating Family Interest
• Promoting your project
• Establishing a Family Tree - Identifying the Family
• Looking for existing family information
• Size of project
• Is a Family Web Site for you?
• Can I do this myself?
• Creating Discussion Forum - Keeping Informed
• Creating a legacy - Family Stories
• Site usage guidelines
• Copywrite

Who, Why, What & When

August 2006, a few guys were discussing family, rather than rugby. The point was raised on how difficult it was to let family know what was happening, especially, as so many had moved so far. The discussion turned to how could we use, the internet, to bridge these gaps. The goal is to bring our whanau closer together by communication; sharing family information and events between interested family. Also to seek out certain lost branches of the family; especially giving new generations the opportunity to learn more of their early family heritage. Not to mention, also for us to learn more about the web. One of those guys decided to create this site.

What

Our initial goals were to:

• Connect kith and kin - bringing our families closer
  • informing of family events
  • sharing information and ideas
• Create a legacy - record family stories and events
• Cultural identity - promote understanding

Generating Interest

Generating interest is easy; getting active involvement is harder. If you are interested in family activities, family history, family interrelationships and communication - then this site may provide somewhere to start.

The first major step is to identify someone or group of individuals to drive the family project. There is a reasonable amount of work to get things going and over time a successful family site will derive a momentum of it's own; but there will be times when a gentle or not so gentle nudge may be required.

• Make sure the objectives of your family site are clear; especially that the site meets the needs of the driving stakeholders. The objectives and direction can later be adjusted for the more general family but initially it must focus on the needs of the driving group. Even if it is to give them time to gain confidence and experience to take further steps. Objectives could include:
  • Family History?
  • Upcoming family gathering?
  • Communication. Newsletters?
  • Notices & Events?
  • Family Stories?
  • Finding relations?
• Determine who is going to be responsible for the setup and maintenance of the site.
  • Can they make decisions and resolve disputes?
  • Is there a technical ability to create and manage content?
  • Are tools, computer and time available?
  • Who can support them if they are not available?

Having determined there is an interest, contact one of the three amigos.

Promotion

A great way of initially advertising the site is to send out questionnaires to known relatives. It is easier if a clearly defined goal is the objective, this could be a proposed family gathering of all descendants of an early ancestor planned for 3 years time. The more defined the purpose and better the response. Questions can include

• A newsletter announcing the new site
• Requests for ideas and involvement
• A family information update
• A short profile of each family member
• Directions on how to apply for membership
• Directions on what is currently available

The driving group will need to initiate this activity and collect, collate and respond to all correspondence. It is important to give feedback to those who reply and in thanking them for their time and effort. Providing feedback on the information gained will further generate interest.

Family Tree Research Site

Creating a family history tree is a great way of bringing family together, especially those interesting in genealogy research.

One method is to chose a particular ancestor, far enough back to encompass a suitably sized number of family members to meet the objectives of your family site. This can be the basis for finding all known descendants.

A shared objective such as a future family reunion would be an excellent basis for this work. The following steps should be considered when considering setting up a family records site such as this.

Look for existing work

Search the internet - Sites like

• Cyndi's List - Very comprehensive list of genealogy sites
• FamilySearch - One of the largest online databases
• RootsWeb

If a site already exists that does what you intend, perhaps joining and supporting that site would most effectively meet your needs.

Start off small

• Write down what you know and call up any family to initially fill out 2,3,4,more generations
• Create as comprehensive as possible family record data using a family history program that can create a GEDCOM file.
• Personal Ancestral File (PAF) can be downloaded free from www.familysearch.org
• Share intentions and findings with family
• See who is interested and willing to help

Go for the next step - A Family Web Site?

Creating a family history site on the internet where relatives can view and update family records may be the next step. One great advantage to this is that it creates an environment for collaboration which is so much more effective at gathering information.

This will create a bond and a sense of togetherness as families work together to discover new things.

This site is in the process of investigating this opportunity. If you would like to be involved then feel free to contact a member of our founding group.

Do it yourself

The software phpGedView found at http://www.phpgedview.net/ seems like an excellent open source program that can facilitate what we want under any hosting provider.

Family Forum

A discussion forum where family members can express themselves, share information, ask questions is important to any family. Given the spread out nature of many families email becomes a most effective way of communicating. Using a central group that faciliates this, allowing group communication, notification, and posting of events is an wonderful way of achieving this.

• Determine on a forum where ideas and information can be shared
• Yahoo Groups <<< Highly recommended
  This is an excellent forum for group communication. Create a new group associated with your family page.  I suggest that this group should be private whereby people must apply to the group moderators for access privileges.  The advantage of this is that people are more comfortable sharing family information knowing it is likely to remain confidential to this group.
• Setup and configure your group
• Advertise the existence of your group
• Be prepared to spend time promoting and providing content to encourage membership and participation

Family Legacy

Being part of and leaving a legacy is an important part of a family. Comprising any family legacy are the stories and memories that a pasted down through the generations. Wouldn't it be great to be able to capture these before they are lost? And, of course, the new generations are history in the making. The purpose of this section of the whanau site is to explore methods where documenting this legacy can be achieved and opened to all the family.

Policies

Rules of conduct are important to help determine what may be acceptable or not acceptable to be placed on each family site. These policies and procedures and guidelines should be determined by the guiding family members and displayed prominently; and especially noticable for any family members that are given editing privilege.

• Establish a privacy policy that everyone can agree on
  • What information is to be stored on the site
  • What information needs to be restricted and what those restrictions are
• Others as identified

Copyright

Generally content on this site is not intended as copywrited; however, any content and images should not be considered as public domain, but are the property of those family members and families that posted such content.