Hi there
As a new member of Census I, I can tell you this I began putting my county
census-
Schuylkill County - on-line. This began as a challenge from Brian L. He sent a
letter
saying if we don't move with the census the "fat cats" would beat us to the
punch.
I forwarded this letter - minus the stuff about USGW to the county. The response
was/is overewhelming - people stepped forward to transcribe. In some instances
entire years - in other instances specific boroughs/ townships for specific
years.
The infamous 1890 census - is going on line via the 1890 Schuylkill County Census
Directory - in fact it is all volunteered out.
In order to get the census done - I coordinated with Margaret Steen - Pa Census
II head.
Shortly there after I volunteered to be the head of Pa Census I. In brief-
Margaret
and I have been working fine together. We aren't getting "politically"
involved
in
the grievances between the two groups - we've set our eyes on the goal and we
have
nointentions of taking our eyes off of it. We want to get the entire state done.
Who or
which does it is immaterial - we are working together. She xeroxing and me
xeroxing - us checking into people and both of us communicating.
I sthis the input you wanted- if so then I hope I added. If not I hope i added.
The dispute between the 2 groups is defeaning and honestly distracting.
barbL
David W. Morgan wrote:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 20:27:50 -0700
From: Linda Russell Lewis <cityslic(a)ix.netcom.com>
Reply-To: USGenWeb-SE-L(a)rootsweb.com
To: USGenWeb-SE-L(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: [USGenWeb-SE-L] Archives Suggestion
Resent-Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 20:29:11 -0700 (PDT)
Resent-From: USGenWeb-SE-L(a)rootsweb.com
Below is a message that the Archives file managers are very strongly in
favor of, (100% so far) and it has been sent to the Board:
We are still discussing it.
Cathy Burnsed wrote:
>
> Hey everyone,
>
> Here's a thought, but it's one that would require concessions by both
> sides, not just "us" or "them." If someone who is subscribed to
the other
> list would pass this on, I would appreciate it.
>
> The concession by "us" (Census I) would be that the File Managers would
> relinquish maintenance of the census portion of each county's TOC to the
> Census II project. This is what am thinking of:
>
> A researcher wants to look at records for Leon County, Florida, goes to
> the USGenWeb Archives table of contents, and clicks on Florida, then Leon
> County. So far they are using pages that I, as an Archives File Manager,
> create and update. When they get to the Leon County page, there are no
> actual links to the files, but rather just record types (census, cemetery,
> marriages, etc.). So the researcher decides they want to look at Leon
> County census files, and clicks on "Census." It then goes to a Table of
> Contents type page** that is actually maintained by the Florida Census
> volunteer from Census II. The Census II volunteer is not only in charge of
> recruiting volunteers, but also editing and formatting the completed files,
> as well as uploading them to the proper directory. No notification to the
> Florida Archives FM is even required, since the TOC will be updated as well
> by the Census II volunteer.
> ** Note: the *TOC* for the county census directories could be located
> anywhere, not necessarily in the same directory as the other TOCs.
>
> The concession by "them" (Census II) would be that they agree to move the
> census files back into the "Archives" directory structure so that files
are
> included in the Archives search engine, and so that researchers bypassing
> the TOCs entirely will still be able to locate census files when using the
> ftp directories to navigate the site. Also, to make use of the partial and
> complete census files and indexes and various other census files that have
> been donated thus far outside of the Census Project's guidelines. They
> would be linked to just as any other census file, but it would be
> understood that once an "official" transcription became available, that
the
> links to partial files may be removed. One other small detail would be
> that some states have state census files, and they would need to be
> accomodated, as well, on the Census TOC.
>
> Which leaves us with Census I volunteers for each state who may or may not
> be the same person as the Census II volunteer. In cases where they are two
> different people, it may be that one was just volunteering to "fill-in"
> during the crisis, and doesn't really care to continue. In other cases
> where both want to continue, they would need to agree to be
> co-coordinators, perhaps splitting the counties within each state
> alphabetically so each one handles 1/2 of the counties.
>
> This is just the beginning of an idea...and I would appreciate if others
> could point out shortcomings and potential problems, as well as build on
> this idea. Why won't it work? What could we do to make it work?
>
> Your ideas, please!
>
> Thanks,
> Cathy Burnsed
>
>
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Congratulations new SE/MA CC Rep!
Jim Powell, Jr <jpowelljr(a)worldnet.att.net>