Featured User: Mark Barnes

Mark Barnes submitted his site to be a featured TNG user this month: The Cocks and Baker Genealogy. Like many TNG users, his site is his primary repository for all of his information. TNG *is* his main genealogy program, so he is able to simplify maintaining his information and sharing it in the same program. He’s done quite a bit to customize his front page, including a nice sliding banner at the top that keeps his site name constant but changes through various photos and documents in the background. Each image has a small caption that appears, describing what you are seeing. It’s a nice and unique way to add interest to the landing page.

Rotating Header Genealogy Site

The site is chock full of media, Mark has documented his work with many photos and scanned documents. The media dropdown in his menu bar makes it easy to navigate the various types of media he has collected.

Mark has also created a custom statistics page that pulls from the TNG database to display interesting bits of information, like activity from this day in history, surnames, birth years, places, etc.

Genealogy Site Stats Page

Mark has also created a vertical display for the pedigree chart. Right now this is available as a mod for TNG, but it will (with Mark’s permission) be integrated into the soon to be released version 10 of TNG. It is a nice way of displaying the pedigree in a vertical rather than horizontal orientation.

Genealogy Site Vertical Pedigree Chart

Thank you, Mark for sharing your well done site with us!

Featured User: William Herndon

William Herndon has used TNG to put together a collection of information on the Herdon, Lindell, Bonnell and Fairbanks families. His site is located at Lindell-Herndon Genealogy.

HerndonHome

His site is built on Template #8, which is included in TNG. William has modified the template a little by removing the box around the Latest News and Changing “Features” into “Starting Points”. We appreciate him keeping the “Contact Us” on the home page, as sometimes visitors to a site have a hard time identifying the site owner and try to contact Darrin instead!

Herndon Customized Photos

William has also changed the template by using his own images at the top instead of the stock images that come with the template. This adds a nice personal touch to the the site and is simple to do with the Administrative Interface. (Watch for a tutorial on how to do that later this week!)

Welcome to the TNG community, Wiliam. You’ve done a nice job with your site!

Featured User: Roger Moffat and WordPress Integration

Today’s featured user is Roger Moffat, who maintains a clean and user-friendly WordPress site with TNG integration using the free TNG WordPress Plug-in. Roger is a long-time TNG user who is always a friendly smiling face when he stops by our booth at the conferences where we are exhibiting our product. You can view Roger’s Site at www.lisaandroger.com. His home page is a traditional blog, where he occasionally shares about his life, his own genealogy, and important things to know in the genealogy world.
If you click on the tab at the top that says “genealogy” you will find his TNG work:

MoffatGenHome

Roger has made a few tweaks to the software as it is running on his site. For example, he has the social media sharing buttons visible by default, while the software as-is has the buttons accessible through the small “Share” button for those who want to use them. The TNG WordPress Plug-in uses a dark blue color by default, and Roger has edited the CSS style sheet to get a lighter blue color to match the theme he is using for the rest of his site.

DownloadsRoger also offers several “mods” he has written to add functionality to TNG, available for free download, with the option of donating to Roger for his time in creating them. You can find these under the “downloads” tab.

Being the helpful kind of guy he is, Roger has written an excellent tutorial on the TNG Wiki on how to use the WordPress Plug-In. It can be a tricky process, so make sure that you read through the entire tutorial first, and then carefully complete the steps in the correct order.

Thank you, Roger, for being such a helpful and friendly member of the TNG community!

Featured Users: Familien Kracke

Screen shot of Kracke.org home pageTimo Kracke has put together a nice site where he uses the TNG WordPress Plugin to integrate his TNG site into his blog. Language Drop DownThe blog and site are primarily in German, but once in the TNG database portion, you can use the TNG languages feature to view the TNG information in any language the site administrator has allowed. Timo’s TNG site can easily be switched to viewing in English.
Using WordPress, Timo has included links to where he can be found on social networks, and an automatically updated Twitter feed.
He uses TNG functionality to have his WordPress home page display lists of events happening on this day in history, a list of surnames, and randomly chosen photos and documents.
On this Day
Home Page Display
Very nice work, Timo! Thank you for allowing us to share your TNG site.
If you are a TNG user with a public site, and would like to be featured on our blog, please send an email to andrea@lythgoes.net – hope to hear from you soon!

Featured Users: Bush Family

Header from Bush Family Site
TNG User Chuck Bush has put together a nice example of how TNG and WordPress can run seamlessly side by side. When you land on his home page, what you see is a WordPress blog. He keeps the blog updated fairly regularly, and you can see what he is currently working on and what new discoveries he has made.
Click on the “Genealogy” tab and you’ll see that his TNG installation is nicely done and designed to look identical to his WordPress theme (which I suspect he did himself as well!) All the usual TNG functionality is there and the site is very visually pleasing. Genealogy websites and platforms often offer a wide range of tools and resources to help individuals in their quest to trace their ancestry. These resources may include historical records, family trees, DNA testing services, and a wealth of information about various aspects of genealogical research. Whether you’re a seasoned genealogist or just starting your journey to discover your family history, these platforms like Record Click can be invaluable in your quest to learn more about your heritage.
Screen Shot of Bush Family TNG page
Chuck has also integrated discussion forums into his site, using another type of software for running forums. Other than the TNG and forums, everything you see on Chuck’s site is WordPress.
Chuck tells me he does not use the TNG WordPress Plugin, but has done the integration himself. Thank you, Chuck, for sharing your site with us!

Featured User Sites: Craxford Family

Craxton Genealogy Home Page
Alan Craxford has put together a magazine style site for the extended Craxford Family. This site looks like it is running a dozen different instances of TNG, but it is actually all one TNG database. The genealogy portion is one tree, and the yearbook portion is another.
The family area is divided into 9 “magazines” each specializing in one branch of the very large Craxford family. He has a very creative scheme where he has adapted the Template4 that comes with TNG to match the various color themes, and is using a customized template switching facility to handle the modifications for each branch. Each magazine section has its own color scheme, customized banner, and unique left menu.
CraxtonColors
Over a dozen associate editors handle the various magazines and the customized TNG user rights allow them to be able to curate their area with little help from the admin. The magazines are nicely content rich, with numerous articles, letters, editorials, photos, birth, marriage and death certificates, and census studies.

The high level of customization of TNG here is impressive, and the site is a wealth of information for those working on the Craxford lines and those that tie into it. The entire site is w3c validated.