Hi!
I just wanted to let you all know about a new project that I just finished
setting up today. Many of you may be familiar with the US Biographies
project, an offshoot of the Kentucky Biographies Project which was started
in '97. Basically, the goal of the project is to transcribe bios from
sources that are no longer copyrighted. The project is concerned only with
biographies - so there will be no transcription of censuses, cemetery
records, bible records, etc. I volunteered (was suckered into it, actually)
since the KY project was such a boon to my own research, and because I was
already transcribing bios for my Lewis and Cowlitz Cos. GenWeb pages.
The URL is:
http://www.halcyon.com/jennyrt/WABios/index.html
The following counties are online with at least one bio:
Adams, Cowlitz, King, Kittitas, Lewis, Pierce, Snohomish, Spokane,
Stevens, Walla Walla, Whatcom, Whitman, Yakima
To link to the county pages, the URL is:
http://www.halcyon.com/jennyrt/WABios/x.html, where x is the county name
(all lowercase). For example, Adams Co. is
http://www.halcyon.com/jennyrt/WABios/adams.html.
Currently there are 63 bios online - I'm hoping that will quickly pick up
once more volunteers come on board. The rules that apply to the US GenWeb
archives also apply here - all bios are from books that are no longer
copyrighted, and thus can be freely downloaded for research. I encourage
you to provide links on your own GenWeb pages. I also want to assure you
that I will not "hijack" bios from other pages - so if you are already
transcribing bios for your own pages or for the Archives, then you can
expect that they will not mysteriously appear on the WA Bios project unless
express written permission of the original transcriber is granted. That
said, if you are willing to help, then please check the project pages and
let me know what you are willing to do - I'd love any help I can get!
One more thing - I am also the editor of the Books We Own project, which is
a listing of books and resources owned by volunteers who are willing to
provide lookups for others. The Washington Page is located at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~bwo/washington.html. Feel free to link to this
site from your own lookup pages - the project has over 600 volunteers, with
more being added every week.
Well, I've gone on long enough. Please do not hesitate to contact me with
any questions or comments. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Best wishes,
Jenny Tenlen
jennyrt(a)halcyon.com
Lewis Co., WA GenWeb Coordinator
http://www.halcyon.com/jennyrt/walewis/walewis.html
Cowlitz Co., WA GenWeb Coordinator
http://www.halcyon.com/jennyrt/wacowlitz/wacowlitz.html
WA Biographies Project Coordinator
http://www.halcyon.com/jennyrt/WABios/index.html
Books We Own List Editor
http://www.rootsweb.com/~bwo/index.html