Here you can find links to websites and software that I use in my family research. You may also find links here to other websites related to Bird family history.
If your site is related to this site in someway and you would like to have a link placed here then please contact me with your request, the URL to your site and an explanation of it's relevance so I can review it for inclusion.
The main tools I use in web creation are HTML and CSS. I chucked this site together with these two and another little item called PHP, which is a scripting language. It helps me do some funky stuff.
If you don't know anything about web programming and want to start your own site, don't be scared by the Acronyms. HTML refers to the markup you add to your webpage text so that a browser knows how to display it. CSS refers to a method of formating the HTML so it looks nice (like my site) :)
If your running a Windows based computer then the chances are you will have access to a program called Frontpage - part of the Microsoft office suite. It's a tool most suited to those starting out and has a more beginner friendly 'drap and drop' methodology and lot of this 'code' will be written for you. I don't use this one myself but it's a good tool to get you started.
If you want more control and would like to get your hand's dirty and start learning some HTML and CSS, check out the W3Schools website for some truly awesome beginner tutorials. Basic HTML is nothing to be afraid of and is in fact pretty easy to master.
Using HTML and CSS you can create a website using just a text editor, like WordPad or NotePad. In fact, I'm writing this page in WordPad. Sometimes for a quick edit it's just easier. For a bit more project organisation and some useful tools I use the following:
It's free and it's great. For a personal web-site builder this tool rocks.
Most people setting up a personal family tree website are probably doing it so that other family members can view their research, or maybe so they can get in contact with other people worldwide who are researching the same family name.
Either way, your site is unlikely, at least initially, to have a massive volume of visitors. However, you may want to store items like family photographs and documents that may take up quite a lot of space and bandwidth. You might not even know if you have the knowledge or time to support your own website long term. For these reasons, initially you would probably want to try and find a free host.110mb is a good place to start. Why?
If your personal surname site is somehow relevant to the tree here at "Bird Family Tree", and you would like your site displayed then please contact me.