Greetings to all those on the mailing lists attached This email has been sent to me and I am posting to all in the hope that it may clear things up a little regarding recent emails about the Ryerson index and its contributors Please dont reply to me as this is passed on for information only all the best Patrick Callaghan > A lot of volunteers make up the Ryerson Index, and each one of them does > their best to respond to queries and lookups. > > A recent posting to this list was a bit incorrect and I would like to > correct the errors. I believe that Patricia was responding in good faith, > but some of the history got twisted along the way. > > The Ryerson Index is a product of meetings held in Sydney, some 15 years > ago, by the Sydney Dead Persons Society who felt a need to try to bridge > the gap between the availability of the official Registry Death > information which at that time was no later than 1945, and the present > time. > > It was noted that the NSW Probate Index did bridge that gap somewhat, but > only to 1984, and then not everyone had an estate that needed to pass > through Probate, so missing many names along the way. > > The original idea was to index the Sydney Morning Herald Death Notices, > which expanded to the Daily Telegraph in Sydney, and as the Index became > better known, many other papers have joined the index, only with the > assistance of many new volunteers, so we now have coverage in most states. > More coverage is needed and to that end the Ryerson Index will be happy to > hear from anyone who can contribute, either by indexing a new paper, back > indexing a paper, or being able to supply regularly information from any > paper to be indexed. > > Back indexing was not thought of in that early stage, but the attendance > of Joyce Ryerson at a DPS meeting changed that. Joyce had many years of > SMH Death Notices in her collection of family history material, and that > enabled a larger coverage quickly. > > As we rapidly approach three million entries we look back to see a lot of > hard work, and a lot of satisfaction, spreading information via our > website to people who would not have previously been able to readily > easily look at the index to find a name of a relative, but then in a lot > of instances are able to get the further information from the notice, via > our volunteers. > > Not all of our volunteers are disabled, but as the years creep on, many > volunteers find this volunteer work easier than things like gardening. > > We know we run a smooth machine, but even with strict guidelines, and > sometimes emails disappearing into the air, we find that things do not go > as planned 100% of the time. An email to the Secretary via the "Contact > Ryerson Index" icon on the main page will see prompt attention to any > failures found by listers. > > Bill Shute. > Back Indexing Coordinator. > Committee Member. > Ryerson Index Inc. > > > >