I want to add my appreciation for the part each of you has done to make this
project the true treasure it is for KY researchers. We couldn't have done
what we have without the help and dedication of you volunteers. You're by
far the best in my books!
One thing I'd like to clarify a little, though, is that we won't be done for
a while. We're currently transcribing the 1918 certificates. Image
processors are working on the 1919 images. We have images through 1923 and
approx. 10,000 into 1924. This will keep us all busy for some time to come,
so we're still going to be keeping your folders filled. <g> As images are
transcribed and proofed, we'll be pulling them down from our KYVitals site
and moving them to the KYGenWeb site on Rootsweb to make sure we stay under
the 50,000 file limit.
Thanks to each of you for your support of our Project.
Sherri
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sherry Slaughter" <sheryl.slaughter(a)yahoo.com>
To: <kygenweb-kvrp(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 2:25 PM
Subject: [KYVITALS] Future of the project
Dear volunteers:
Those of you who are newer to the project will not recognize my name, but I
am Sheryl Slaughter, and I started this project in 2003. I worked as the
project coordinator until the untimely death of my husband and a hasty
return to college to get a degree a couple of years ago. I have continued to
work with Sherri Bradley and the other admins as time permits--particularly
in helping with transitions and programming to move the project between
sites. It is with Sherri's blessing that I write to all of you today.
The project is in a very difficult position. We have moved more than once to
get web space and speed to accommodate the growing project. We recently were
alerted by our current hosting service, BlueHost, that our account was to be
turned off since we have more than 50,000 files. While this company
advertises unlimited size and unlimited bandwith, they have decided to
change their terms of use to exclude sites of more than 50,000 files. At the
time of the announcement, we had more than 600,000 files on the site.
Sherri, the other admins, and myself have been researching options and
discussing what we should do. We have decided to discontinue the project in
its current form. FamilySearch is about to put the entire collection of
Kentucky death certificates from 1911-1955 online, including images and
transcriptions. The estimated timeframe they gave me is 1 to 2 1/2 months.
We are confident that these records will remain free forever, so they meet
the goal of our project to get those up. We are in process of pulling down
all the images except for the two years that are currently being
transcribed.
We plan to leave up the database so researchers will be able to look through
our transcriptions for alternate spellings, etc. that might help them find
their ancestors. We also have a feature where researchers can see all
surname variations in the database, which will be a help for difficult
surnames.
We will be going forward as we can with records that FamilySearch is not
planning to put up. That would include rarer sources such as family bibles,
school censuses, odd lots of records that have not been microfilmed such as
the 1850's birth and death certificates we found in Campbell County, and
other records that show a birth, marriage, or death. Beyond what records are
already in the pipeline, there will be no more images processed.
Sherri and I are in the middle of downloading and deleting the images from
KyVitals, and uploading them to a KyGenWeb site where county coordinators or
others can link to the individual images. They are being uploaded by county,
and within each county, by year so all the images from the project will
remain available to everyone.
Feel free to ask any questions of Sherri or myself as we work through this
journey trying to transition the project. If you try to access the project
on any day from now forward and cannot, it probably means BlueHost has shut
us off. We are in danger of that every day we are over their 50,000 file
limit. If this happens, know that we are working on a resolution and we will
come up with one--even if it takes a few days. Your hard work is not going
away.
As you finish your work on the project, I want to encourage you to
transcribe for FamilySearch if you can. It is easy to do online, and the
work they are accomplishing is nothing short of amazing. Just go to
FamilySearch.org and click on the Indexing tab at the top to sign up and get
started.
I want to personally thank all the volunteers, past and present, for being
willing to sacrifice of yourselves to help realize my dream. I have made
some lifelong friends and gained valuable skills working on this project. I
wouldn't have missed it for the world.
With deepest appreciation,
Sheryl Neal Slaughter
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