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Using Google Tools for Genealogy Research - Gmail
The Internet, and the information available online, are wonderful resources for family historians. To make effective use of those abundant online resources, however, family history researchers need tools for gathering information, organizing their collected research, making notes, and retrieving notes and information. We have some suggestions for using the resources made available by Google to assist you in those research tasks. A variety of useful services are available through a Google account, which Google describes as a "unified sign-in system" that provides access to many free Google products. The first step to making use of these services is to set up a Google account. The sign-up process essentially involves providing an email address, and selecting a password. Once you've established a Google account, you're ready to try out the available services. In a series of posts, I'm going to be discussing the Google account services that are particularly useful for doing genealogy research, and for compiling and sharing family history. Our starting point today is Gmail. The value of a Gmail (Google's email service) to family history researchers lies, first, in the ability to use Google search to search through all emails in the account. This search capability makes it possibile to easily retrieve email conversations. Another valuable feature of Gmail is its label system for marking and categorizing email messages. The Gmail labels make it possible to tag an email message with multiple labels. Let's say, for example, that you're doing research on the Smith and Jones branches of your family, and your cousin sends you an email message with information about both branches; tag that email conversation with both a "Smith" and a "Jones" label, and you'll be able to retrieve that message whenever you're looking for email messages discussing either "Smith" or "Jones." Email conversations in Gmail can also be marked with a star if, for example, an email discusses a family history topic on which you're currently focused. There is also value, I think, in establishing an email account to be used exclusively for your family history email correspondence, and a Gmail account serves that purpose well. With several gigabytes of storage space available for each Gmail account, chances are that you'll never run out of room in your account, even if you have many archived emails with big attachments, such as PDF files, spreadsheets, photos, and so on. Gmail also incorporates a "chat" feature which might, for example, be a useful way for family members at far-flung locations around the globe to be able to discuss family history research. In short Gmail has a group of features that match the needs and interests of family history researchers. |
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