If you have visited the Genosis profile in the last week or so, then this is old news to you, but there's been a lot of updates and changes over the last couple weeks that I wanted to outline - besides the new look for the Genosis site, there's been big changes and updates in the latest version of Genosis.

First up however, is the new Genosis website !  I've been working hard over the last couple of weeks on a brand new Jamroom module - "Custom Profile Domains" (some finishing touches are being done on it, and it will soon be in the marketplace so you can run the same type of setup if you would like) that allows you to map a domain (i.e. "genosisfamily.com") to a Jamroom profile running on your site (i.e. "Genosis").  The module handles all the cross-domain session support, AJAX and form handling, etc. - the idea being to have a "seamless" experience as you move between profiles.  So as a test bed, Genosis is the first to go live with a custom domain, as well as a custom template set, and I think it looks great - clean and easy to see what Genosis does.

Next up, is the HUGE Genosis 1.2.0 update that rolled out a fews day back.  This new release has many, many updates and fixes in it based on the feedback I've received from a handful of key beta testers and early users (thank you for your feedback!)  Improvements include:

• All new GEDCOM importer and exporter that can now handle trees of almost any size.

• Profile and Event forms have been updated to use a "Live Search" field for location.  There were issues with the older select field that made it really bog down when you got beyond about 2500 or so different event locations.

• Updated and improved site-wide search now searches many more fields, and should let you find things easier.

• All new profile "Research" options including Canada, England, Scotland and Mexico Census search.  New research plugins include:
  • Canadian Archives
  • Ellis Island Passanger Search
  • Find My Past (subscription required)
  • Irish Genealogy
  • Genealogy Bank (subscription required)

• Family Search research plugin will now automatically attach any record image found when you create a new Family Search source (the plugin will detect the FamilySearch URL and automatically download the attached image for you).

• All new "Blog" setup for site owners that want to blog about their research.  This includes new settings to allow visitors to view your blog entries - even if the blog is attached to an ancestor profile that would normally be hidden due to privacy settings.

• Lots of other small updates and tweaks to make things run smoother and work better.

If you have not updated to the latest Genosis, make sure and check it out and let us know how it works for you.

I've also just pushed out a brand new module - Genosis World Events !  This new module will add significant 'World Events' in to your profile time lines.  This really helps to put dates and time into perspective, as you can see what other big events were happening around the world at the time of the event in the time line.  It's a FREE module , and is powered by Wikipedia, so make sure and check it out:

http://www.genosisfamily.com/networkmarket/154/genosis-world-events

We hope you enjoy the new Genosis site and the new updates - we look forward to seeing you online!

I’ve just finished updating the Genosis profile to no longer be private - today we release our first “Total Conversion” for Jamroom 5 - Genosis :

https://www.jamroom.net/genosis

Genosis is a departure from the “normal” Jamroom modules and skins you may be used to - it has been designed from the ground up to help you build a Family Tree online .  Since Jamroom is a “profile centered” application framework, building a site featuring Ancestor Profiles is a natural fit, and there’s just not a lot of good software out there if you want to put your family tree online for your friends and relatives.

Genosis sprang to life after a fruitless search on my part to come up with a way to build a family tree online.  There certainly are a number of packages out there, but all of them seemed clunky and “data centered” (in other words they looked like excel spreadsheets put online - this type of layout may appeal to a genealogical researcher, but not family and friends that just want a nice clean site where they can view their family information).  So Genosis was born as a set of modules plus a skin on top of Jamroom 5 (JR5 is really an awesome platform for building stuff like this).

So today we’re finally taking the wraps off of the Genosis beta, and are looking for users that want to help us out with feedback.  Ideally you have some (even limited) experience using Family Tree software (such as Ancestry.com, Family Tree Maker, etc.), but even if you’re just curious to check it out and take a stab at working out your family history, we’d love to get your impressions.

Genosis Consists of 5 custom modules:

• Genosis Core - provides core level support for other Genosis modules
• Genosis Events - powers the main profile “Timeline”
• Genosis Sources - Collect and reference your genealogical resources - includes built in PDF viewer
• Genosis Research - a plugin based “research” module helping you uncover facts and records on your ancestors
• Genosis Stories - save stories about your ancestors

And a custom skin:

• Genosis Family Tree Skin - a specially designed skin setup to highlight ancestor profiles, images and stories, as well as featuring a dedicated Research section accessible to your “researchers” (admin users).

Genosis is setup to take advantage of the the File, Image Galleries and User Comments modules if they are installed in the system as well.

Like I mentioned earlier I know this is not the “normal” Jamroom stuff you would see from us, but I’ve been doing genealogical research for some time and the rest of the team have been very cool about me wanting to share this with the JR community - hopefully a few of you are interested as well.  For those of you that would like to see what it looks like, feel free to check out my “work in progress” family site here:

http://johnsonfamily.talldude.net/

Only Ancestors born before 1900 are viewable, but you will be able to see how things are setup and work.

Developing Genosis has been a lot of fun, and in the process I’ve added a ton of new functionality into the Jamroom Core that is going to help all JR developers - including ourselves, as we’ll be taking the wraps off our next big Jamroom Project here in the not too distant future

We hope you enjoy Genosis!

- Brian