Hva er det som skjer?

Ja, det kan man saktens lure på for noe er det. Under de olympiske vinterleker skrev jeg at aktiviteten på Slektsforum, Brukarforumet og Slektsforskerbasen ble lav da vinterlekene startet. Jeg regnet med at dette bare var et forbigående fenomen i forbindelse med disse sportslige aktivitetene som opptar nordmenn. Nå begynner det å bli en god stund siden vinterlekene ble avsluttet, men aktiviteten er fortsatt veldig lav og det i en periode av året hvor aktiviteten normalt er på topp. Har interessen for slektsforskning fått seg en alvorlig knekk eller har slektsforskerne funnet seg andre arenaer?

Det ordnet seg i siste liten

I dag skriver Megan:

Dear RootsTelevision.com Viewer,

OK, you convinced me! After getting inundated with emails, tweets, and Facebook postings and messages about the closing of RootsTelevision.com (RTV), I’ve decided to keep it going. I honestly had no clue how valued it was by the genealogical community, and I agree with the many of you who pointed out that it serves a somewhat different purpose than the prime time programming that’s on TV at present (much as I’ve been enjoying that!). At the same time, I think many had not realized that RTV is a one-person company, but one that’s not inexpensive to provide.

Thanks very much to all you who reached out to share your thoughts and experiences. Although I haven’t been able to respond to all of you, I hope you realize that your comments made all the difference in the world. Thanks also to the more than 20 individuals, organizations and companies that contacted me to explore the notion of adopting RTV. It’s refreshing to know how many were willing to step in and help. I also need to thank Brightcove, the video platform used by RTV, for working with me to find viable solutions.

I should probably clarify one point of confusion. Many were under the impression that even if RootsTelevision.com closed down, the video archive would remain. Quite a few also wrote asking me to send DVDs of the videos, but with more than 700 videos on the site, popping them on a DVD is not an alternative. Hosting and streaming this wide array of videos is one of the most costly aspects, and there are rights issues involved as well, so if RTV had gone, so would have all the videos.

That’s why I surveyed genealogists on Twitter and Facebook, asking whether you would be willing to tolerate commercials if it would help preserve RootsTelevision.com. I was beyond relieved how lopsided the response was! So please be aware that I will be adding commercials to help pay the bills. Unfortunately, I don’t have the resources to customize them, but I’ll experiment with ways to make them as painless as possible. I’d also greatly appreciate it if you let me know of any people, companies or organizations that would be interested in running banners ads on RTV. Boston University and Family Tree DNA have both helped support RTV in the past by sponsoring ads, and more of the same would help ensure that the doors of RTV stay open in the future!

Og and I are going to do a little tinkering under the hood at RTV, so you’ll see fewer new videos for a while, but please use that time to explore the hundreds of videos that are already there. Please also consider uploading your own videos (podcasters welcome!) through RootsTube and let us know of any great genealogical videos you come across in your online travels. If we see something we like, we’ll do our best to secure permission to share the video on RootsTelevision.com, so you can have the widest, high quality viewing selection possible all in one place.

And finally, I would ask that you spread the word to your friends, relatives, libraries, and genealogical societies that the lights are still on at RootsTelevision.com! The more viewers, the better – so watch often!

Thanks again,

Megan

Snart slutt for Roots Television

Roots Television har vært et flott tilbud til slektsforskere som ønsker å lære mer om forskjellige tema. De har vært formidleren av mange lærerike program og intervju, men den 10. mars er det trolig slutt dersom ingen ønsker å overta. I en melding på Roots Television skriver Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak:

It's with mixed feelings that I'm sharing the news that I will be closing RootsTelevision.com (RTV) as of March 10th. Back in 2006, RTV was launched to fill a void. As I wrote at the time:

"We've been perplexed for a long time. These days, there's a horse channel, a wine channel, a sailing channel, a poker channel, a guitar channel, and even a shipwreck channel. So why, we wondered, isn't there a channel servicing the millions of people interested in genealogy and family history?"

Intet varer evig, og det var synd at Roots Television måtte gi seg. Vi får håpe at noen kan få etablert et alternativ som kan føres videre da tilbudet vil ble savnet.

DNA revolusjonen nærmer seg

Til nå har y-DNA tester vært mest aktuelt i forbindelse med slektsforskning. Med denne type tester kan man følge rette mannslinjer og på den måten finne tidspunktet for en felles stamfar. På den andre siden av anetavla kan man bruke mt-DNA tester til å finne tidspunktet for en felles stammor i rette kvinnelinjer, men med en betydelig mindre nøyaktighet enn hva som er tilfelle for mannslinjen. Så har vi hatt det store gapet mellom rett mannslinje og kvinnelinje i anetavla. Dette gapet er det som nå kan utforskes av autosomale tester. Disse testene har vært tilgjengelig i omtrent et års tid, men har gjerne hatt mer fokus på helse enn slektsforskning. Om ikke så lenge vil FamilyTreeDNA komme med autosomale tester hvor slektsforskning vil stå i fokus. De kaller testen for Family Finder. Med denne testen kan man oppdage forbindelser til etterkommere av alle sine seksten tippoldeforeldre.

Jeg har alt meldt min interesse for en slik test og vil senere komme tilbake til hvordan dette utvikler seg.

Er du klar for den store revolusjonen i genetisk slektsforskning?