Now that we can upload our photos by mail, let's really leverage that and make some magic happen. Many Applications let you send photos by mail. Our last installments looked at Picasa and iPhoto, but let's step a bit outside the box and do something really slick.

We're going to use one of the coolest applications out there: Google Earth. You've probably heard of it, and maybe even used it, but wait until you see how handy this can be for your Family Tree Site.

In fact, in less than 5 minutes, we're going to find a free aerial photo of a small-town church from my family history, and we're going to upload it to my TribalPages family tree site without ever leaving Google Earth!

Getting Google Earth

Google Earth [1] is free to download and install, and we've checked with their terms of service [2], and this use is legal (as long as you don't resell their photos or remove the copyrights). If you want an easy way to install it and keep it up to date (as well as get Picasa and other great software), we recommend the Google Pack suite which can't be beat. Just click on the Google Pack button to the right and you'll be up and running in no time.

If you're not using Windows, Google Earth can still work for you (Mac and Linux versions are available): just download the right version for your system and follow the installation instructions [3].

Once installed, run Google Earth (from the Start Menu for example) and you should see a screen like the one below:

Finding Something Worth Saving

Google Earth is a fantastic application, and you can spend hours poking around on it. But let's do something useful right up front and see how our Email Upload Tool fits in.

We're going to find the baptismal place of my (semi-fictitious) great-grandfather and attach an aerial of it to my TribalPages site -- in less than 5 minutes!

Let's pretend that I know my great-grandfather was baptized at the North Park Baptist Church in Moberly, Missouri. First, I type "Moberly, MO" into the Search Box hit Enter (or click on the button). Google Earth brings me to the Aerial of the Town:

While this is great, it's not quite enough. Next, I type in "Baptist Church" (Google Earth will only search the current view). Google finds a number of them, but the second is an exact match:

I double-click on the "B" icon (or just zoom in with my mouse wheel) and get exactly the view I'm looking for:

Now for the Good Part

Ok, we've shown how great Google Earth is, but what about adding it to our TribalPages site? Our new Email Upload Tool makes it easy!

All we need to do is choose "File->Email->Image" from the Menu, or click on the little Email icon:

Google Earth will pop-up a choice box: you can use your build-in mailer or use GMail. I'm going to use GMail in this case.

After logging in, I'm presented with an email message window where I enter my Email Upload Address (userid-PIN@tribalpages.com or binkofree-1234@tribalpages.com for this example) as the TO: field, I enter my caption and description as the Subject and Message fields. Google Earth has already attached the photo. Then, all I do is hit Send.

Checking the Results

Let's go see what happened on the site. We go to my site, and check the Photos tab. Notice the "Emailed Photos" album.

Clicking through, we take a look at the Aerial Photo we just grabbed:

Success! Found and uploaded in minutes!

Once Google Earth is installed and working, the new Email Tools is like magic! For example, I've found over a dozen amazing locations that I'm glad to share with my family. Once Google Earth found them, I had them up on my site in minutes! Take a look at the links below to see some of the other great views I've found in Google Earth.

• Battleship Cove [4]
• Baden Baden, Germany [5]
• Arlington National Cemetery, VA [6]

Once you install Google Earth, you can Click Here to view these sites in Google Earth [6]. I hope you have as much fun mapping, grabbing and posting the locations of your family history!

Bill

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