The BOTTOM(S) family information www site effort will move ahead. The idea for this site came from Jim Lantrip, the owner of BOTTOM-L list on rootsweb, after he and I were exchanging views on home pages. Jim has wanted to have such a site for some time. In fact the web site at: ( http://www.wtgsoc.org/bottoms/ ) that he maintains on BOTTOMS downloads is sort of a history site. Jim, like I, would like to have a place where the knowledge that we all gather can be shared and used by all that have an interest in Bottom(s) and allied family history. I have only been researching for about 3 years since I retired; Jim for several more years. I think many of us reach a point in life when we think...what is going to happen to this work that we have done? Many of our families have little or not interest; we are not going to write a book; so why not share it so maybe someone will continue to benefit from our efforts. I will be the "webmaster" for the site and as such will be doing all the day-to-day operations. . All correspondence should be directed to me, and of course you may copy Jim on any and all. Jim will serve as "Advisor and Consultant" for the site. This will enable Jim to give all of us the benefit of his knowledge and experience on genealogy in general and the Bottom(s) history in particular. My initial thoughts on the site. I will pose in the form of FAQ's (frequently asked questions): 1. What is the name of the site? Ans. THE BOTTOM(S) FAMILY HISTORY NETWORK (BFHN) (Any suggestions for the name are welcomed) 2. What is the mission of the site? Ans. The mission of the BFHN is to provide a common "virtual file cabinet" for the record keeping of documents and images related to research on the Bottom(s) family genealogy so they may be shared and used by all. BFHN is not intended to replace nor compete with other historical or genealogical organizations, rather it is in addition or a supplement to them. 3. Who may contribute to the site? Ans. Anyone with data relevant to Bottom(s) and allied families may have data posted. I think it goes without saying that all posts must be in "good taste". 4.Who "owns" the data listed on the site? Ans. The original contributor maintains ownership of their particular items. Their contributions may be withdrawn if desired. 5. What about commercial use? Ans. No data posted on the site may be used by anyone, except the actual owner, for commercial purposes. 6. What about the accuracy of the information? Ans. BFHN cannot be held liable for inaccurate or adulterated information. Ultimately, the data posted here, like most internet data is at best secondary data and as such should be thoroughly verified by the user. ( I think that none of us would purposely post incorrect data. However in this day as in the past errors creep in and are replicated as times goes on. This is not a new problem but may be more problematic today because of the speed of data dissemination) 7. How may I use the site? Ans. You may use the site in two ways: (1) As a visitor you will , hopefully, gain new data about some Bottom(s) or allied family member. (2) You may use the site as a contributor. 8. What is a contributor? Ans. A contributor is one that offers some or all of their research information to be posted on the site. 9. Give some examples of how a contributor may use the site. a. If you have a home page already, a link can be added that should result in more traffic to your site. b. If you don't have a home page, for what ever reason,and would like to have your tree on the web, it can be incorporated into BFHN. All you need to do is get a gedcom file to the webmaster. (In the case of FTM files, those can be converted to gedcom by the webmaster). The webmaster will convert the gedcom files to HTML for posting on the site. On BFNL there would be a button with YOUR NAME, and this would take the viewer to your tree. c. Post independent topics such as your brick wall, copies of documents (wills, land records, war records) or images that are of general interest. Please note that images(photographs) consume considerable memory, so the idea is to have as many as possible listed, but only have a few that are active at any one time, much as Jim now does on the Bottoms Download...with rotation one a week or so. By having all photographs listed, a particular photo, even though not active at the time, could be emailed to a requestor. 10. What program will be used to convert to HTML? Ans. At the present time the plan is use GED2WWW. This is a dos based program that is very memory efficient. 11. I am concerned about posting my tree because it has sensitive information such as birthdates, etc? Ans. There are several programs which "clean" files of this type information. The GED2WWW has this feature and it will be used on all files (unless otherwise directed). Two other programs are GEDPRIVY and GEDCLEAN. So "that" concern will be addressed. 12. Will the data only have Bottom(s) surnames? Ans. No, there will be all the allied names...spouses and children. Just as in your genealogy files now, the conversion to gedcom maintains all ancestors. 13. I want to contribute but not sure exactly how to do it? Ans. Just send an email with your question to the webmaster. No question is stupid and we all have to start somewhere at sometime. 14. How will we know who contributed what? Ans. Each post will have the contributors name and email address, unless you desire to remain anonymous. In those cases it will state"contact webmaster" and if there is an inquiry you will be contacted by the webmaster letting you know that a certain person would like to contact you. Then you can decide if you want to correspond with that inquirer. 15. Will there be a list for outlet of information? Ans. Initially at least, the BOTTOM-L list will be used to make posts about what is going on with the site. If is becomes a need at some time later, we can set up a list of contributors or whatever. 16. How much will this project cost? Ans. Use for viewing and downloading will be free. The few dollars a month to pay for web space will be borne by small donations for those that desire to do so..some have already offered. There are no dues, etc. The success of this project directly depends on the willingness of each person to contribute and share their hard earned data. We are all motivated differently and we each have our own conscious to guide us. If there turns out to be only a few people contributing, the demands will be too great and they will become discouraged. I guess what could be asked is that we all participate according to our time and talents. I encourage all to reply with your comments, corrections, interest level, suggestions and questions. In fact I would really appreciate it if all on the BOTTOM-L list would reply stating interest level(a) high, (b) modest (c) none. Webmaster My home page: http://www.intercom.net/user/bbottoms Best Regards Bill Bottoms bbottoms@shore.intercom.net