by Cathy Gilmore | Feb 5, 2016 | Features, Resources, RootsTech 2016, Software
Update 22 February 2016:
At this stage our software has limited functionality, but we are still on schedule for a Beta test launch the beginning of March. Among other things, you will see more options for uploading records, increased functionality with the transcription and tagging tools, as well as more robust sharing features. If you are interested in beta testing, please contact us at sales @ kindex dot org.
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Kindex Beta just became available on 3 February 2016 for any users to try it out. Here are some important FAQs that will provide our current status and future functionality.
How do I create an account?
For Beta, we are requiring a FamilySearch login. For most (but not all) account types, this will remain a requirement so Kindex and FamilySearch may support one another in indexing Memories and ensuring that there is little or no name duplication in the Kindex Archive. Indexing accounts that are custom or research-orientated will not necessarily require a FamilySearch login.
I pressed the “Try It Out” button and all I see are a bunch of random files.
The “Try it Out” feature is there to demonstrate the Memory import capability and is not associated with your user account.
Can I upload records directly to Kindex?
For this Beta release, records you wish to index must already be added to FamilySearch Memories. To bring those records into Kindex, add the FamilySearch person ID linked to those Memories under the Add person section on the left of the Gather Screen.
When can I add Kindex Records as FamilySearch Memories?
When direct Kindex record uploads become available, the ability to save these records as FamilySearch Memories will follow soon after.
My FamilySearch Memories are all in the same location.
We are currently trying to ensure that record types are placed in the appropriate category in the Gather screen. For example, Family Search Memories that are photos should go directly to the Kindex Photos area. Look for that functionality to improve.
Can I tag people, places and events?
Our tagging feature will become available in the coming days and weeks.
I have records that I want to index, but I don’t want them to be available to the public.
Kindex will offer two types of privacy tools. First, the document contributer designates a record public or private a the document upload. We will also have a redaction tool for certain words or pages you wish to remain private. For example, you may have a journal that contains sensitive information. You may make that journal private and redact the sensitive information during indexing. Then, if you wish you may change the privacy setting to public.
My indexing screen looks the same for photos, letters, or other document types.
In the coming days and weeks, we will add modals that will assign specific document types for Kindex records. These document types will determine what fields are available on the indexing screen.
When will Kindex Family accounts be available?
Subscription KindexFamily and MyFamily accounts will be ready in March. MyKindex accounts will be free during Kindex Beta.
I want to become a Kindex Beta tester. What do I do?
That’s fantastic! Following RootsTech 2016, we will contact all Beta Testers with instructions.
When will your Community Indexing page be available?
We love our volunteer indexers! Kindex will provide records to the indexing community that volunteers may index and review. Also, we are exploring “indexing credits” whereby community indexers may receive free or discounted Kindex subscriptions by indexing our public records.
How will I know Kindex will be around in five years? I don’t want to lose all my work.
Kindex is solidly supported, backed, and funded. We are also FamilySearch Certified. Part of this means that your source records will be saved and backed up to the FamilySearch Memory archive. You also own all of your indexed content that you will be able to download in various formats such as HTML, text, and print.
I’m a researcher, historian, business historian or museum owner. Can we use Kindex for non-family records?
Yes! Kindex is the idea tool for for transcribing and tagging any primary source documents or records in either a public or private archive.
by Cathy Gilmore | Feb 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
We are in the thick of RootsTech and are frankly amazed at the encouraging support we have received from family historians here who are excited about our indexing product. Although we learned we will not be moving forward to the finals, we are amazed at the progress we’ve made in just four months! Let’s recap:
October, 2015
- Kimball Clark and Cathy Gilmore decide to form Kindex LLC and begin to sell the software and hosting to family organizations
November 2015
- Kindex uses bootstrap funds to begin software development
- We meet with FamilySearch for the first time to discuss the FamilySearch API. We are encouraged to enter the RootsTech Innovator Showdown
- Using props, clothing, furniture, and voice work from our own family members, we write a script and submit a video
December 2015
- Software development begins in earnest, amidst continual and improving iterations.
- Business models are explored and refined.
- Business plan and proforma drafted.
- Social media and content marketing begins.
- Meet again with FamilySearch to discuss API
January 2016
- We learn we are semifinalists in the Innovator Showdown.
- Kimball and Cathy spin the plates of marketing literature, wireframing, front end html and CSS, back-end project managing, preparing two booths for RootsTech, preparing the Innovator Showdown presentation, indexing our use case, writing social media content, selling our product to raise funds, looking for investors and backers, refining business models and pricing, and meeting with FamilySearch during API development.
Wednesday, February 3rd.
- The morning of the Innovator Showdown, Kindex becomes Family Search Certified
- Kindex competes in the RootsTech Innovator Showdown
- Kindex released Kindex Beta™, an MVP product with limited features
We are so thankful for the encouragement of our FamilySearch associates, especially Gordon Clarke, who enabled our certification. And, to the RootsTech Innovator Summit team who provide this great opportunity for startups like us. Without the ever-present deadline of February 3rd, 2016, we would not be where we are today.
To our supporters, Beta testers, and future users: thank you for catching our vision. Kindex Beta will introduce new features in the coming days and weeks, and we encourage your patience as we roll it out.
To the RootsTech Innovator Showdown team and GrowUtah: thank for providing us a springboard into something great.
And finally, a big thank you to our spouses and children, for their constant support and patience in our efforts to help other families find what is lost.
(l-r) Vladimir Canro (one of developers), Colleen Fitzpatrick (consultant), Cathy Gilmore, Kimball Clark.
by Cathy Gilmore | Jan 30, 2016 | RootsTech 2016, Software
RootsTech 2016 has selected Kindex™ LLC of Kaysville, Utah, from a field of nearly 50 candidates to present their family history software in the semifinal round of the Innovator Showdown on February 3, 2016. Part of the RootsTech Innovator Summit, the Innovator Showdown features the latest in family history technology and innovation. From the field of twelve semifinalists, a judges panel will select six finalists to demo live onstage for over 23,000 people. Winners take home a piece of the $100,000 prize in cash and in-kind services, not to mention the free publicity that comes with being a finalist.
Kindex owners and cousins Kimball Clark and Cathy Gilmore are thrilled about the prospects of their new company. “RootsTech has been fantastic at encouraging new technologies in the family history field,” said Kimball. “The Innovator Summit is a wonderful forum for us to present our ideas and learn from others. We are excited for the opportunity RootsTech provides startups like us.”
For Cathy and Kimball, what started as a project to scan and archive their grandmother’s diaries, letters, photos, and other documents evolved into developing a web software company that solved the problem of accessing and reading old documents through indexing. “We realized that scanning documents and throwing them on a website just wasn’t enough,” Cathy explained. “We had difficulty reading the handwritten letters and navigating through so many files. Why not apply the FamilySearch Indexing model to families?”
Kindex Beta debuts at RootsTech 2016
“Indexing has been immensely popular in fueling the find for millions of researchers,” Cathy continued. “Why not extend indexing to the millions of family records that are rich with people, places, and events. These records are at risk of being lost or discarded, and within them are the stories we all seek.”
“One of the most exciting parts of Kindex is the idea that not only will our family benefit, but that countless people mentioned within others’ indexed records will have new documents attached to them through our tagging and transcription tools,” Kimball said. “For them, we are rewriting their history.”
The RootsTech Innovator Summit is a one-day event for developers, entrepreneurs, and innovators from around the globe to explore, examine, and discover business and technological opportunities within the family history industry. The Innovator Summit is just one of the events offered at RootsTech, the largest family history even in the world. From Feb. 3-6 in Salt Lake City, Utah, RootsTech will offers speakers, entertainment, classes, and large Expo Hall of exhibitors.
Along with being an semifinalist, Kindex will be in the Expo Hall and “Innovator Alley” where the latest in family history tech will be on display. Kindex will debut their new family indexing web software Kindex Beta at RootsTech 2016.
For more information see:
Innovator Showdown Submission: http://devpost.com/software/kindex-index-your-history
Facebook
Twitter: @kindex
Instagram: @kindexyourhistory
Logos: kindex.org/identity
by Cathy Gilmore | Jan 26, 2016 | Features
The Lethbridge Kiddies, “Easter in Fairyland”
This photo of Dorothy Smith and her theater friends appears in her Book of Remembrance. It has been one of our favorite images of her youth. But with no caption, and nothing written on the back, we didn’t know anything about it. For years we wondered about its context, and it wasn’t until we transcribed one of Dorothy Smith Clark’s handwritten life sketches did we learn the real story behind it. In addition, we also discovered a photocopy Dorothy made that identified many of the people in it. Since then, we have identified and tagged eleven people in the photo on FamilySearch. Now this photo can be searched, shared, and appreciated, thanks to the transcription of Dorothy’s life sketch.
When saving photos to any online site, include as much information as possible, even if you don’t know the people in it. Consider information such as:
- Provenance (Where did the photo come from? How did you receive it? Who was the original owner?)
- Captions (Did the photo come from a scrapbook that included a caption?)
- Information written on the photo itself, on the front or back
- The stamp or mark of the photo developer
- A description, including setting, subjects, time period, or other tags that will make it easy for someone to find.
- The date the photo was taken (or an estimate of the date)
- Other supporting information, such as information extracted from letters, diaries, and other documents.
- Identify the people in the photo. If you are unsure, but want to suggest a possibility, make sure that it is clear in the description.
Don’t give up on unidentified photos. The little information you have may help solve a mystery. Index them. Transcribe the information on them. And of course, if transcribe your family’s documents, the description may already be written for you:
“When Marvin and I were about 13 and 11 we travelled with a group from “The Alberta Conservatory of Music” under Leo McCoombs to several surrounding communities. Billed as the “Lethbridge Kiddies” in Easter in Fairyland, our offering included piano with narratives, violin arrangements, dances and humorous readings by characters dressed as Rain, Snow, Clouds, and various flowers. My role as a pink hyacinth included a short piano number and later a group dance. Despite the novelty and excitement of being “on the road”, the stage never held any real attraction for me, even after some pleasant times in dancing choruses and road shows.” —Dorothy Smith Clark, Life Sketch [Dorothy Smith (KWC4-9F9)]
For more on solving photo mysteries, Maureen A. Taylor, a.k.a The Photo Detective is a fantastic resource.
by Cathy Gilmore | Jan 24, 2016 | Letters
“Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
How can we use letters to reshape our history? We may be surprised to learn how rich a source they can be. As an example, here is a transcription of single page of a letter—one that is part of a larger story of Ellsworth M. Clark hitchhiking his way through Southern Idaho and Wyoming in the summer of 1934. He was to be married to his fiancée Dorothy Smith that August, and was desperately seeking work as a school teacher in the height of the Great Depression:
This morning I came over to Montpelier with the County Sheriff. I was in Montpelier for almost one hour before I found out Wm Clark was not coming over here. From the garage where he worked. I walked up past Munks (Mildred is now home), but I believe they were yet in bed so no one came to the door. Not knowing how I would get over here, I walked towards the canyon until I got out of town. I waited for about an hour and caught a ride over with a big truck. As there are very few cars going on that road, I consider myself very lucky to get a ride so soon. I was back on top of mail sacks and boxes of groceries etc. The wind tangled my hair until I thought I’d never get it combed out. Arrived in Afton about 12:30 and just had time to shave & clean up for dinner. Aunt Louise & family have treated me very fine. You should see the swell bedroom I am to have tonight.
After dinner I called on Mr. Crook, the Superintendent of Schools. He was not home, but his wife said she to at a ballgame or church, she didn’t know. He will be back at home about 5:30, at which time I will interview the Gentleman.
June is leaving Paris for Salt Lake today. I think she left about noon. Suppose you will see her before I will.
The weather is somewhat cool up here
Aside from containing fun details about riding in the back of a truck, this letter is more than just a story: it contains people, places, and events. For example, this page contains six people, four places, a date, and a few subjects:
Names:
County Sheriff [Bear Lake County, Idaho]
Wm Clark [William O. Clark KWCZ-3G6]
Mildred Vilate Munk [KWCB-M92]
Aunt Louie [Louisa Mary Shepherd Call KWJZ-HL8]
Mr. Crook
Mrs. Crook
Places:
Montpelier, Idaho
Afton, Wyoming
Paris, Idaho
Salt Lake City, Utah
Date:
9 June, 1934
Subjects:
Great Depression
Hitchhiking
Job search
Each person tag represents an opportunity to share this source as on their family trees such FamilySearch Memories. The date provides a mark on a timeline for that individual, and the locations can help form a map that is also linked to that person. Finally, subject tags illustrate what is contained on this page that will enrich our view of history with this new perspective.
If this much information can be indexed from a single page, imagine what we could derive from an entire letter? An entire collection of letters? This is why transcribing and tagging is the key to unlocking our histories and the stories contained therein.
