Jumping in here way late, but why not just
1) make your on-line Look-Up Volunteer list more visible from your county
index page, and
2) include
the instructions on that list for how to join your county's email discussion
group.
Then if your look-up volunteers don't have the info, or not enough info to
satisfy the querier, they (the one asking for more) can publicly ask the
group, who will, I bet, let him or her know that we don't even have all of
our OWN genealogy questions answered.
Another possibility (3) would be to set up some general on-line search
pages to go along with all of your county pages, but at a separate location.
The one I set up first was for collecting all the free surname search sites I
could find and would use from time to time. It has grown into a site of its
own, and lets readers do their own on-line genealogy searches. Excites
the detective in all of us!
And last (4) idea is to be sure to have some way for your county readers
to post their queries that don't get answered. This can either be through
any number of possibilities on Rootsweb or your own guestbook set up,
and can also be through your county email group where members can
post (and you can collect, if you want, for your web page) their "Most
Wanted" ancestor questions. You could also let your readers know they
can set up their family tree data at places like MyFamily for FREE, thus
eliminating their needing to purchase a GEDCOM program. It's all a bit
like fishing, trying different baits, to find where the elusive data will
eventually show up on-line.
Nancy Sween
Butler County CC
plus "Interactive Genealogy"
http://www.minimeta.net/igen/
In a message dated 6/25/2000 10:00:10 AM Central Daylight Time,
SJGreer30(a)aol.com writes:
<< I would like to put a Blurb on each of my pages, Being blunt but gently
telling people viewing the databases "This is it, the volunteers can't do
your genealogy, they can't goto the courthouse for you, they just submitted
this file, that is it!" Don't bother them for information that is not on the
datafile. I haven't figured out a nice way to say it yet. >>