About the author – John Pfost

I have been a professional communications consultant and freelance technical writer since the early 1990’s. At about the same time, I took over the family history studies from my parents. The merging of these two passions – family history and technical communications – fulfills my life goals and interests.

As an enthusiastic genealogist, I have worked through many of the most difficult dead-ends and unknowns of my family’s research. I actively network with countless cousins, near and far, digging deeper into our roots. My ultimate goal is to push all of my family lines back to the sea; that is, when they first came to America. One of my most arduous tasks was proving my 3rd great grandmother, “Mary Adams.” It seems that I had to disprove nearly every other Mary Adams who had ever lived. Eventually, I discovered that Mary was born 1825 in Wilkes County, North Carolina; moved to Warrensburg, Missouri at the age of seven; lost her husband in the Civil War; and at the age of 60 moved to Ventura County, California. She died just shy of her 99th birthday. After 10 years of research – from coast to coast – I discovered that Mary is buried a few miles from my home here on the central California coast.

I have been playing with TNG for nearly two years. Like many users, I was immediately fascinated with its extensive capabilities and beautiful, user-friendly presentations. As one who is unexcited and weary of the canned and stilted outputs of common desktop genealogy programs and especially their self-serving commercial interests, TNG is a welcome relief!

While researching and writing the Webmaster’s Guide to TNG, I became intrigued with the remarkable technologies that are now available for publishing and sharing information in secure online environments. Many genealogists and family historians dream of one day compiling all of their research into bound books for their present-day family and future generations. I now feel strongly that the technologies exist to meet and even vastly exceed conventional publishing. Dynamic, database-driven Web sites such as those being created with TNG are the future. Not only does TNG possess the capabilities of satisfying the most rigorous standards of credible genealogical research, but it also provides an unequaled medium for storing and presenting vast amounts of data and diverse media files. TNG Webmasters have total control over how their data is retained, managed and shared. Some TNG sites, for example, are wide open and encourage anyone to access and contribute to the data. Others are more selective and maintain a relatively tight group of fellow researchers secured by permissions and logins. TNG-based family history Web sites also allow a vast range of collaboration and social networking technologies, such as blogs, wikis, forums, and media galleries. A genealogical study is never really completed and it is very easy to put off stopping and writing up all of our findings. TNG offers a remarkable alternative – a practical and secure means of continuing the research while also sharing the efforts with some or many.

Based on this developing fascination, I will be making some changes to this Web site in the near future.

• I will be rebranding the site so as to become a definitive gateway for Webmaster Resources for family history Web site developers. This shift will result in more information, products and services to assist family historians in understanding and applying some of the vast resources available for creating and managing family history Web sites.


• I will be writing additional books, papers, and articles that will hopefully assist others in understanding the available technologies.


• I will be adding a blog so that member users can discuss and share the countless Webmaster resources.


• I will of course continue to support and promote TNG and the Webmaster’s Guide to TNG.

I would very much like to hear from you and what you would like to see included here. Until the blog is set up, please send me an This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and let me know what you think.

As always, best regards,
John Pfost