I have been employed as a software engineer since 1984 and have
been keenly interested in genealogy since the birth of my son in 1985. Organizing the large amount of data one
accumulates from genealogical research is a task that is well suited for
computerization. My personal
genealogical hobby has therefore been a marriage of these two passions and over the years I have used my genealogical hobby as the
impetus for learning the seemingly endless stream of new software technologies
that are needed in my career as a software engineer.
While working at Digital Equipment Corporation in the late
1980s and early 1990s I came into contact with other Digital employees around
the world who shared my interest in genealogy.
I developed a set of applications for the OpenVMS operating system that
allowed users to enter and organize genealogical information for their direct
line ancestors and then shared this set of programs with this group of Digital
employees. Then I set up a method via
which users could submit their data to a central database and built a server
application that ran under the VAXeln operating system via which users could
search the central database in an attempt to find ancestors shared by other
Digital employees.
In 1992 I left Digital and began working for Corning,
Incorporated, and in that position I began developing work-related applications
that ran under Microsoft Windows NT. Corning
purchased a subscription for me to the Microsoft Developer’s Network and once
again I fell back upon genealogy as a driver for learning this new set of
software tools. So I wrote a C++
application called GART (Genealogical Archive and Research Tool) that used Microsoft
Foundation Class library functionality to allow users to enter and modify
genealogy information that I had imported from the previous VAX-based
environment.
In 2000 after moving to the Atlanta, Georgia area and taking
a job with yet another software development company, I created the first
version of the Genealogy at Holly Mill Run web site. By this time, the data which began as a
binary file on a VAX back in the 1980s was resident in a Microsoft SQLServer
database and was displayed for web site visitors using a series of Active
Server Pages (ASP). If a user “logged in”
to the web site they were able to see information for people who were currently
living and were even able to enter data for new people. I also eliminated the requirement that a
person in the database be a direct line ancestor of my son. In about 2005 an enterprising hacker was able
to corrupt the database by taking advantage of the way I let logged-in users
add or modify data in the database.
Ultimately I got the web site back on line albeit without the ability to
add or modify data.
In early 2015, I moved the web site from a server in my
house to a server operated by GoDaddy in Arizona. Currently I am developing a Windows desktop application
that will allow trusted users to enter data into the database.
Over this 30 year period (as of 2015) the Internet has taken
off and the process of doing research has become much simpler. In the 1980s the proximity of a researcher to
a regional branch of the National Archives was a key to success. And even with proximity to the National
Archives, a researcher was still obliged to correspond with libraries, court
houses and genealogy clubs by US mail.
Patience was indeed a virtue!
During this 30 year period I became familiar with a lot of
genealogical resources and developed some very successful methods for extending
my own research. I am not a professional
genealogist, but via this blog it is my intention to share the knowledge I have
and the methods I have developed for myself in the hope that others who might
be just beginning their research can benefit from the experiences I have had.
