Okay, so today I wanted to mess around with something a bit different, something I’ve been thinking about for a while. It’s this idea of making a, like, digital family history thing, but not boring, you know? More like a fun, interactive booth where people can just walk up and find out about their last name.
First, I started to gather up some data, I mean, where does a person even start with something like this? I hit up a bunch of those genealogy websites, the free ones mostly. I wasn’t about to pay for a subscription for this little project.
I spent a good few hours just copying and pasting names, dates, places – it was a real mess, honestly. My spreadsheet looked like a toddler got a hold of it. But hey, that’s part of the process, right? Getting your hands dirty with the raw stuff.
- Collecting Data: Grabbed a ton of info from free genealogy sites. Names, dates, places, the whole shebang.
- Organizing Data: Tried to put it all into a spreadsheet. It was chaos, but I powered through.
- Designing Interface: Did some rough sketches of what the booth interface could look like. Buttons, pictures, maybe a cool font?
Then came the fun part – figuring out how this thing would actually look. I grabbed a pen and some paper – yeah, I’m old school like that sometimes – and started sketching out what this “booth” would look like on a screen. Big buttons, maybe some old-timey looking pictures, and a cool font. I wanted it to be super simple, like, even my grandma could use it.
After that, I started playing around with some basic coding. I’m no expert, not even close, but I know enough to be dangerous. I managed to get a basic screen set up, where you could type in a last name, and it would… well, it would mostly just sit there and look pretty. But hey, progress, right?
Then came the hard work of trying to connect that messy spreadsheet to my little program. I tried a few different ways, hitting my head against the wall more than a few times. There were definitely some moments where I wanted to throw my laptop out the window.
- Coding: Used my, um, “limited” coding skills to make a simple interface.
- Connecting Data: Tried to link my messy spreadsheet to the program. It was a struggle, to say the least.
- Debugging: Spent hours (and hours) fixing all the little errors that popped up.
Eventually, after hours of debugging and a whole lot of coffee, I got something that sort of worked. You could type in a name, hit enter, and it would spit out some basic info from the spreadsheet. It wasn’t pretty, and it definitely wasn’t perfect, but it was something. It’s like building with LEGOs, you start with a pile of bricks and just see what you can make.
This whole thing is still very much a work in progress. But it was a blast to actually start building something, you know? Seeing an idea in your head start to take shape, even if it’s a bit wobbly and rough around the edges, is a pretty cool feeling. It’s like a puzzle, and you’re figuring out how to make the pieces fit.
What I Learned
This is my big take away, always fun to learn something new. It is a long long way to go, but I think I can pull it off, and I’ll figure it out along the way. I really need to figure out how to store the data better, and make the whole searching thing more reliable, also to make the interface look way better.
It’s just the beginning of the project. I need to keep chipping away at it. I’ll keep you all posted on how it’s going, assuming I don’t lose all my hair in the process!
