The original images on Footnote are incredible.  Everyone agrees on that.   Every time you think you’ve finished a high-level review of the contents in the categories on Footnote, another two million images are added.

While we all revel in the original documents on Footnote, not as many of us researchers take advantage of the documents and photos uploaded by other members.  We see some of them when they briefly show up as a Spotlight, but there are hundreds of thousands that are uploaded and but are never spotlighted by members.

You owe it to yourself to search for items of interest in the member submitted category.  The image topics there are as varied as the interests of Footnote members.

To look for Member Submissions, just click on the down arrow on the Search button and choose ‘Advanced search’.

In the Advanced search window, enter the information you seek in any combination… full name, surname, place, year range a keyword or all of the above.Near the bottom of the window, choose “Member Contributed Images” from the drop-down list to limit your search specifically to that category.

The results of your search may be a rare family photo like this photo of the Kornhauser family posted by member leokeil.

You may find a great letter like this one that was posted by member markgilchrist.

It could be the French birth certificate of Hubert Dominic Cardini that was posted by member RCardini.

Member contributions are an excellent way for individuals with common interests to share their ‘finds’ with each other and the Footnote community.

All of us who post to Footnote need to remember to name our images with intelligent names so they can be found in a search.  We also need to annotate the key items in them to enhance the content descriptions so they are included in search results.

What treasures lie undiscovered by others in your Footnote shoebox?  Share them by making sure enough information is included in the title and annotations so others can find them when they search Footnote.

Thanks for making this such an exciting year at Footnote.

When we opened our doors in January of 2007 we had fewer than 5 million images on the site. Since then we’ve added 2 million images a month and have made improvements to the site. Today you can access more than 42 million images on Footnote. Along the way, we’ve worked hard to keep our costs down and subscriptions affordable.

With challenging economic conditions, the time has come to make a modest adjustment to our subscription fees.

Starting September 1, 2008, the monthly All-Access Membership price will be $11.95 and the annual All-Access Membership will be $69.95 (an additional 83 cents per month for annual members).

To help with the transition to the new prices, we’re inviting users to upgrade to an Annual All-Access Membership at the current price of $59.95.

To purchase an Annual All-Access Membership, go to: http://www.footnote.com/account. This special upgrade offer expires August 31, 2008.

We believe that at these prices, a Footnote membership continues to be a great value and a low-cost alternative to traveling to an archive to access the same records. We hope you agree.

We appreciate your support and feedback and look forward to continuing to serve you.

Best regards,

Russ Wilding

CEO, Footnote

There are so many fascinating documents and photos on Footnote that many members want to include them on their personal blogs and web sites.

The process is simple.  Just find the image on Footnote that you want to include or upload it to your Footnote Gallery. Open the image and click on the "Spotlight" link above the image and create a Spotlight. 

Now that you have Spotlighted the image, click on its title while you are still logged in and then click on the "Link & Embed" link above the image.  

The code you need to use to embed either the image or the full spotlight on your blog is now on your screen.  Three radio buttons on the page allow you to choose the size of the image frame that will appear on your site.  Choose the size you want and then copy the code in your blog or site.

Using the embedded code, blog entries or web story pages about your ancestors, historical events or interesting photos are enhanced with related Footnote images and spotlights. 

You may also want to include your own Footnote Member Card on your blog or web site so visitors can see your Footnote posting activity.  The card provides a real-time list of your postings by category.  Each item in the list is a link to your postings in the related category on Footnote.

To get the code for your Footnote Member Card, go to your Profile and click on the link below your name. 

The Member Card code will then be created.  Again, just copy the code and add it to your blog or web site.

Google Footnote Widget

If you have a Google account, you can add the Footnote widget to your iGoogle page.  The widget will always keep you up to date with the latest Footnote Discoveries and Blog postings.  Click here to go to the Google widget page.  Log in to your Google account and click on the "Add it now" button.  The widget is now added to your iGoogle page.

We hope you enjoy these features and encourage you to use them.  If you have suggestions for other features you’d like to see in footnote, please leave us a message and tell us about them.

Many Footnote members are uploading historical photos and graphics that they want to share with the Footnote community as Spotlights.  The images often contain many persons or items of interest and by annotating them, others can see the names of the people, places and items in the image.

Sometimes members wonder why only one face or item appears in their Spotlight when it is seen on the "Recent Member Discoveries" list.

The problem is caused when a Spotlight is created and then the member annotates the image.  The Discoveries list is designed to only show one posting by a member at a time.  Thus only the most recent addition, comment, upload, story page or annotation appears on the list.

When you create your next full image spotlight that will also contain annotations, be sure to create the annotations before you create your spotlight.  Then your spotlight will contain the entire image rather than just the content of our last annotation.