GandaAds.com will get your message to all concerned
October 2005
The Ganda Group are happy to announce that in October 2005 they will launch GandaAds.com, a sister web site to GandaAncestry.com, which will focus on providing announcements and advertising services to the Ugandan community all over the world. You will be able to post your advertisement online and have it instantly viewed by thousands of Ugandans and others who will visit www.GandaAds.com
GandaAds will carry announcements of Births, Weddings, Graduations, Meetings, Deaths and similar events. The announcements will be categorized into free ads and paying ads, depending on size, inclusion of images, and other factors. Regular business advertisements will also be serviced. GandaAds.com will also include an online store which will sell products and services that are complimentary to its primary business.
To learn more about the upcoming GandaAds.com and how it can benefit you or your business please send an email to hnabuuma@GandaAncestry.com.
New Director offers free GandaAncestry.com membership to Baganda in Uganda
August 2005
The new GandaAncestry.com Director of Marketing and Sales has moved fast to make the web site more friendly to all users and more accessible to Baganda who live in Uganda. Hanifa Nabuuma was appointed to her new position on August 1, 2005 and has already made headway with all of the following initiatives:
A redesign of the GandaAncestry.com web site to make it more user friendly.
Free subscription for all Baganda who live in Uganda and have an email address. If you are a Muganda who lives in Uganda, just go to the contact us page, select the subject "Muganda in Uganda", enter your correct email address, and click Submit.
Increased focus on data research and cooperation with clan leaders and the office of Omuwanika wa Buganda. To this end she has set a target to add an average 500 new Baganda to the database every month over the next period up to December 2005.
Introduction of an online Talking Luganda Dictionary for subscribers, which translates from English to Luganda and, additionally, gives example sentences and "speaks" the pronunciation of the Luganda translation.
Adding an online Luganda crossword puzzle to the web site.
According to Hanifa, "I want to make coming to GandaAncestry.com a relaxing and educative experience for all our users, especially Baganda." Hanifa Nabuuma earned a B.Sc.(Hons, Upper Second) in Electrical Engineering from Makerere University and has over 5 years Software and Systems Engineering experience, at Infoma Corp (USA) and Bank of Uganda.
GandaAncestry.com has been redesigned
August 2005
If you have visited GandaAncestry.com before, you will note that the site has been redesigned to give you a more efficient and user-friendly interface. Below are the major changes that have been made:
You can now search for Baganda from the Home page.
You can now do a simple search based on the Surname or Clan name of the subject or you can go and do an Advanced search, for a more precise search.
Searching for Baganda and searching for Famous Baganda have been combined but Famous Baganda results are marked as such. Additionally, you can select to only view the Famous Baganda results.
The menu titles have been simplified and more intuitive (e.g., TRACE changed to View Family Trees).
The amount of text on the site has been reduced. It is an ongoing effort to make the site less verbose and more to the point.
GandaAncestry.com mourns Omulangira Kazigo
August 2005
The staff of GandaAncestry.com and all associates of the Ganda Group join the family and friends of Omulangira Dr. Joseph Zirabamuzaale Kazigo, on his tragic death in August 2005. Dr. Kazigo had taken a keen and active interest in GandaAncesty.com and his comments and advice will be very much missed.
We convey our condolences to Kabaka Muwenda Mutebi on losing "omusajja we" and Dr. Kazigo's family for losing such a devoted husband and father. May his soul rest in eternal peace.
GandaAncestry.com
subscription has started
June 2005
You can now subscribe to GandaAncestry.com
and get access to all system features immediately. Registration
of subscribers, on a controlled basis, started early in mid May
2005. For more information on subscription, including charges,
please visit the Subscription page.
Thanks to support from some Baganda we have also added
ancestry information for many famous Baganda, especially
members of the Balangira clan. Special thanks goes to Prince
Nicholas Basamula and the whole family of Prince David Namugala
Mawanda, for their support and leadership in this effort.
Thanks also goes to the Catholic Church office, Namugongo, for
the invaluable information they provided.
GandaAncetry.com operates on a subscription basis. Anyone
can subscribe using the Complete Subscription page
and paying the applicable subscription fees. For details
on subscriber rights and responsibilities please read the Terms
of Use page.
GandaAncestry.com discussion boards to assist subscribers locate their relatives
June 2005
The Discussion Boards feature of GandaAncestry.com is designed to allow subscribers to collaborate or simply exchange ideas on topics that relate to Ganda culture and ancestry. One of the most important objectives of this feature is to enable Baganda who share the same family history to find each other, share family facts and ensure that their family tree is recorded as accurately as possible.
As a GandaAncestry.com member you may request that a Discussion Board be created on a subject of your preference, using the Request New Board page of the Collaborate area. Once your request is reviewed we shall create the Board and send you an automatic notification. After that you and other members who are interested in the subject matter can start using that board.
The most efficient way to use a discussion board to find relatives is to join or request a message board that is specific to an ancestor. For example, if you are sure that a famous muganda chief, Mukasa Kiwanuka is your great grandfather, you join and check out an existing discussion board titled "Mukasa Kiwanuka of Bulemeezi". If none is available, you can request a discussion board with an appropriate title.
Thanks to user feedback, work on Premier version of the GandaAncestry.com Luganda Dictionary has started
June 2005
In March 2005 we reported that the GandaAncestry.com
Online Luganda Dictionary had been enthusiastically received.
Moreover, a large percentage of the users were taking time
to give constructive feedback or offered to become test
users. The number of users is steadily growing but, thankfully,
the feedback also continues.
Based on the feedback we have received, we have been able
to add over 800 new words to the dictionary and to initiate
work on a new and much more featured version of the dictionary.
The premier edition of the GandaAncestry.com dictionary
will, among other things include the following features:
Examples sentences, in Luganda.
Linkages to related words
Sound clips on difficult to pronounce words
Elements of the GandaAncestry.com
Online Luganda Dictionary Premier Edition shall will first appear
in Version 1.1 of the web site (see related story below).
GandaAncestry.com
Version 1.0 arrives in 3rd Quarter, 2005
June 2005
This is Version 0.2 of the GandaAncestry.com,
to be followed by the full featured web site, to be labeled
Version 1.0. Great news; Version 1.0 is on
track to arrive before September 28, 2005. Only
three major features remain to be implemented before Version
1.0 is formally released:
Add Relative - The ability for a member to add ancestry
information on his or her relative, without the need for
the relative to be a member too.
Add Famous Baganda - The ability to nominate a famous or outstanding
Muganda for inclusion among Famous Baganda.
Trace - The ability for the user to generate reports
on his or her:
(a) Family Tree, starting with the earliest
ancestor and ending with the latest descendant registered
(b) Descendants Tree, including all the descendants of
a specified person in the GandaAncestry.com database;
and
(c) Kulanya information, automatically generated from
the ancestry information.
These few remaining features, and the full Version 1.0 of
GandaAncestry.com, will arrive in the 3rd Quarter, 2005. Immediately
after work shall start on Version 1.1, which addresses
many of the feature needs that you, the users, have and will
express in 2005. Version 1.1 is scheduled to be released
in the 1st Quarter, 2006.
GandaAncestry.com
already has 30 test users, some
of whom have provided invaluable input to the design process.
Initial plans called for 50 test users so, if you are
interested in becoming a GandaAncestry.com test user, you
can still click
here and do so.
