This part of Violettes of Virginia contains information on all the resources I have used in this project, both for genealogical research and for Web site design, and a few other things that didn't fit anywhere else.

Genealogy

1. Genealogical database. Actually, I use two programs: The Master Genealogist by Wholly Genes Software, and PhpGedView, produced by the PhPGedView Team headed by John Finlay. These two programs have very different uses: The Master Genealogist is used as the "master" data repository. I use it because it is capable of dealing with virtually every issue confronting a genealogical researcher. It has many capabilities, and I am still on the steep part of the learning curve. Errors in data are mine, not the result of this program! PhGedView is a terrific piece of open source* software, and it is what I use to put the data in The Master Genealogist on the Web. When you use this part of the site, you are actually using a fully-featured genealogical program, not merely viewing static pages I have uploaded, which gives you much more flexibility in terms of what information you can get from the program.

2. Web site design. The old Violettes of Virginia was a pretty straightforward html job, with very few sophisticated features. This new site is based on more open source* software, including Joomla, a content management system (CMS) that is the "backbone" of the site, and add-ons produced by ReMOSitory (the Library section), AkoBook (the Guest Book, written by Arthur Konze), JoomlaBoard (the Forum, produced by Two Shoes Mambo Factory), with graphics created/edited by Gimp. The new site is more functional, more secure, and I think a lot more pleasing esthetically. It also incorporates a news feed from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, which I think you will find very interesting.

DNA Project

This was started by a fellow Violette genealogical researcher, Gary Violette, and is done through FamilyTreeDNA. I think it is a very important effort, and I hope more people will take part (especially from that other Violette family, the Franch-Canadian Violettes. Could we be related?

 * "The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing." - Open Source Initiative