10 June 2009

Dracup Family Tree

5 September 2008

Latest HTML version of the Dracup family tree can be viewed here and the message board is here.There are over 1500 entries on the tree, so remember to expand the names on the tree.

My name is Gordon Dracup and I was born in Glasgow in 1966. Over the last 10 years or so, my father Benjamin and I have had a passing interest in the Dracup family tree. My father was contacted by Robin Dracup in Halifax some years back to provide some information on our branch of the family.

I was saddened to hear that Robin Dracup had passed away. I had corresponded with Robin on a number of occasions regarding the Dracup family tree and I know that he had done an enormous amount of work in researching the tree and keeping it up to date.

The latest version of the Dracup family tree I have was supplied to me by Rob Dracup (not Robin) who I got in touch with via LinkedIn. Although it has my latest updates, it is still over 4 years since it was updated.

I realise that there are a number of on-line genealogy sites out there, but to be honest I have not used any of them and am sceptical as to what benefits they can provide. They may provide a central location and allow collaboration, but the fees they charge would seem to deter most people. For example, I had a quick look in one of the sites, and there was only 8 Dracup name references. Given that the current tree has over 1500 I don’t see what use it would be.

Being somewhat PC literate (note the “somewhat”), my suggestion would be to try to keep the tree going and provide a mechanism by which the tree can be updated centrally. In order to do this, I can provide the following to the Dracup community out there:- 

1.      I can update the current version of the family tree with updates provided directly to me. My intention would be to do this via the dedicated bulletin board below.

2.      A dedicated message board has been set up here This is a private board and only open to people with a genuine interest in the Dracup family tree. Users will need to register on the board and drop me a line via the Contact Us section of this board detailing the reasons for their interest before I grant access. This will allow people to share stories, reminiscences, photos, etc.

3.      In order to update the tree, people will have to provide me with as much information they have of the person(s) – date of birth, place of birth, date of death, mother, father etc. This will allow me to locate it in the current tree if it exists or add where appropriate.

4.      I can also provide an FTP site for upload and download of large files e.g. the Dracup family tree in Family Tree Maker format. This can provide a central distribution point for the tree once updates have been done. Again, access will only be given to genuine users as the tree contains personal details.

5.      Given that this information resides on the www.dracup.com website, I am hoping that this fact alone will generate a bit of traffic related to the family tree. In addition, Google and a number of other search engines parse this site occasionally, so anyone googling “Dracup family tree” for example, should be directed to this site.

One point that I am not sure about is the data and privacy issues. The tree contains a lot of personal information, and I am not clear whether I should distribute this without permission from the individual or whether I can distribute a version that excludes all personal information except Name, Date of Birth, Date of Death and other publicly available information. If anyone out there can provide advice, I would be much obliged. Initially, I may only distribute the full tree in one of the report formats.

To be honest, I am a bit of a Family Tree Maker novice. I am using FTM 2008 and so far I am far from impressed. It probably does have a lot of features that I am unaware of that could assist in this.

There may be someone out there better able to keep the tree up to date, and if there is, please get in touch. I would still be happy to provide the “infrastructure” components i.e. web site, bulletin board, ftp site etc.

I am hoping that the uniqueness of the Dracup name will mean that the volume of requests will be fairly low and I will be able to cope with this in my spare time!

Please feel free to get in touch using the Contact Us section. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Gordon

Gordon Dracup

If you have read this far and are sufficiently interested, and would like to contribute to the costs of maintaining the family tree and providing this service to the Dracup extended family, please make a small donation below:-

 

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