I see that we now have 2 new county coordinators for Gibson Co, IN for the USGenWeb
Project:
Debbie Wesley & Misty Bogle
Welcome Debbie & Misty - I know you will enjoy doing these pages.
If you haven't been there I suggest you browse through the many things they have
already put online to help all of ya'll in your genealogy research -- really looking
GREAT!!!
For those who don't know the address -- go to
http://www.usgenweb.org and then go to
the county selection (either map or text) and choose Gibson and once the first page comes
up, click on it and you will enter their new little piece of "heaven" they are
sharing with ya'll.
Let's all welcome them both with arms wide open -- and if you have some spare time
on ya'll's hands -- there are LOTS of projects they would LOVE having someone help
with -- whether it is census reading/transcription, obits from old newspapers needing to
be read and put online, cemetery transcriptions (contact Chawn or Ernie for this since
they have maintained the marvelous cemetery database and have had lots of volunteers and
ALWAYS need more since it is such a huge project), cemetery stone photographs needing to
be made, birth transcriptions from county and city health depts, and so much more. Anyone
with acces to any of the military organizations can ask those alive if they can obtain
small bits of info (when entered, left, wars in, medals, etc -- aka
"nonviolating" items that can't be used in identity theft but can help their
descendants find info about their military service long after they have gone on to Heaven.
And they (persons in these military organizations
such as American Legion, VFW, etc) could ask permission to get the data for all the
deceased members (from their applications for this org). Maybe they might even find
pictures of military persons that some of the descendants would LOVE finding online.
Even a little bit of info is helpful. It is a MONSTROUS job with so many thousands of
pages of data out there still needing to be transcribed. [I know I have over 50 boxes
(literally) of papers, notebooks, photos, postcards, county books, etc that I haven't
even typed up yet -- these bits of info I had copied down every chance I got for past 49+
years while doing my own family research -- and maybe someday I will get all of this data
on my webpages to help someone too... Oh! Talking about my webpages -- I just wanted
everyone to know that I try NOT to be in competition to anyone [I have been told by many
that this is what I was doing even though I started the pages many years before the
USGenWeb Project even began, and was 1st county coordinator for them for 5 counties in
Indiana) . My purpose is ONLY trying to get information to everyone who is searching and
trying to find all those missing pieces of their family tree, and possibly some pictures
and great stories
too. I ALWAYS welcome all county coordinator(s) to link to my pages (just don't
steal the info on them as has been done in the past with them putting their name on the
data saying they were one to transcribe it, etc. when I had done all the work -- and I
STILL laugh sometimes about this (even though it is outright theft) because they even
copied MY typos and errors and this is how I know it was my work, plus nothing was even
added and only the EXACT names I had put out on my website is the SAME info they put as
"their" transcription -- and if they had indeed used WPA or other records they
wouldn't have had the exact same names and number of names, etc.). Anyhow, by linking
to my webpages and info there, it helps them time-wise and helps so they don't have to
do the same work that someone else has already done, and so they may not have to duplicate
something I have already taken the thousands of hours and have already done. I suggest
they link NOT to my main front page
but to the main page of data -- for instance put link to the birth or death or census x
year, etc so they don't have to browse through the first page trying to find these
subject areas. These links then allow their customers/visitors a "one-stop"
"browsing" experience in finding info they are seeking and will save the
visitors a lot of time too. Yes, sometimes there will be duplicates, but this is
oftentimes unavoidable; but, it is NOT because of a "competition" thingy - it
just sometimes occurs.]
If everyone works together furnishing info, then finding those lost ancestors' (and
their respective information) will be so much more easy (and FUN) for us all. I know one
thing I personally wish was online were the Naturalizations for the county persons, the
Divorces, and things that are not already on microfilm and microfiche and only persons
going to the county can get access to. Most of the researchers (for these older county
residents) are now living outside the county (some outside the USA too) -- so this info
that ya'll can help these two put online will help everyone and be truly appreciated.
For the "newbies" out there -- I always suggest when you are starting your
family trees and histories that you start with yourself and what you know and
"walk" yourself backwards through the years. Get the names, dates, places for
all the family members -- this makes your "skeletan". Once you have this then
you want to use old letters, inscriptions on back of photos, photos, wills, newspapers,
older relatives' stories and memories, etc and put some "flesh on them thar
bones" and make each person in your family "come alive". The
"boring" vital statistics, census', etc. will then be guides to finding
these interesting things and really make your children and descendants appreciate your
ancestry more.
Talking about my own webpages -- I have been steadily working on the 1900 census and I
think I have finally obtained all 30,000+ names of every Gibson Co, IN resident, etc.,
page numbers and townships they were in, and all the family members (and other persons in
each household). I hope to have this info online before the end of September -- and will
then be concentrating on the date of birth of each person since it shows month and year
for each person. This info will give everyone an idea of when the ancestor was born, etc.
since WPA never did the birth records for Gibson Co, IN (as far as I have been able to
determine).
Another thing is I used to have the entire 1820, 1830 and 1840 census' on my website
but when my server database had crashed I lost so much I had online and didn't have
this backedup -- so I have been going back to old computers and harddrives, floppies, etc.
and have been trying to find the places where I had typed the info up, and have been
trying to piece them back together so they can be put back online once again -- I've
found some of the bits and pieces but can't seem to find my entire databases that I
had that had every bit of info but may find these eventually (since I have used over 10
different computers and twice that number of harddrives and literally thousands of
floppies (not marked unfortunately) since 1967 when I first started putting stuff on
computers throughout my house -- this is NOT an easy job just trying to find something
like that -- although I always thought I was organized, this search for these missing
census' and their respective data has shown
apparently I am far from organized and should have backed up all those html files in the
first place (frown) but hopefully I will find these and have them back online before end
of year and not have to put all these hundreds of little pieces and notes back to making
the whole census' again.
Hint: If anyone thinks their ancestor may have been adopted, orphaned, or a ward of the
county (for some reason or other) I suggest you check the census' because MOST of the
adopted children had their previous surname on the census, even though they were adopted
by a specific family and went by the new surname for marriages, etc. While hunting for my
old records of those early census' I came across many of my notes about many of these
adopted, wards, orphans, etc and had forgotten I even had this info -- so will try and
have this info put on my webpages before end of this year too. With this info you can
sometimes find out who the parents were, their birth info, etc even though all the
adoption records can't be accessed due to state rules. You can also find them with
their parents if they are an orphan or ward of the state on one census but previous one
they were with the parents. I know that many persons who were hunting for their
ancestors' real parents I helped
them find the info by using this method many times successfully -- it is just one of
those little bits of research many persons don't know, but can do wonders in solving
mysteries of adopted persons.
Anyway, my best, to both of these new county coordinators, in their new endeavor, and I
also wish to send my best to everyone on this list too. May Debby and Misty have great
success and enjoyment with the web pages. I know that even though it is a LOT of hard
work (and very time consuming), that the joy a person gets when someone tells them how
this "work" helped them find someone, or helped them break through those
"walls" or find an ancestor or the info on an ancestor-- now THAT type of joy
and sense of satisfaction is "priceless"!!!
Judith A. Sandage Murphy
(aka Judy M.)
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