ncgen(a)mindspring.com (Elizabeth Harris) wrote:
I regard GenConnect as just one more tool we can use to make it as easy as
possible for the outside user to find the information s/he wants. The
queries there are indexed and searchable, thus accessible more easily, and
to many more potential readers, than if they were just on my county pages.
The GenConnect system also frees me of a considerable amount of labor
necessary to keep queries up to date on my own county page, time I can
spend working on other improvements to the page.
Here, here!
I can't even imagine fooling with those queries myself. I love it....makes
a surname list for me and everything.
In fact, I just spent a bunch of time visiting some of the counties of my
ancestors through the GenConnect index....and going from the query boards
onto the NCGenWEb pages.
Great stuff. Much easier.
I also ran a wider search on my surnames and wound up in other STATES, then
visiting *their* county pages.
In the process of doing this very think yesterday, I discovered the
GAGenWeb has a Civil War query board. I posted some soldiers by my surname
there that I had found regiments for in The Roster of Confederate
Soldiers....and asked if ANYONE knew anything further about these guys to
contact me. An hour later, I got three huge emails from a man....he had
sent me the ENTIRE rosters, with details of EACH soldier in the whole
company, INCLUDINg the ones I was looking for! I was impressed! ;-)
I would even venture to guess that the county pages that are linked to
GenConnect might get more visitors than those that aren't, just because of
the central indexing. Somebody searches on a surname, finds a relevant
query, perhaps in a county they didn't realize was significant for them;
then links back to the county page to learn more about that county and find
other information.
I KNOW you are right about this because I have had several people come to
my county site that very way, and they've emailed to let me know it.
I don't see how this can be bad.
It isn't. It's "a good thing." <g
Sandy