Hi Merry Ann and family, Your idea is really a good one! It parallels the Continuum (a.k.a. the states/country project) we are currently trying to build. You've also pointed out just how much Bower/Bauer, etc. data we all stand a chance to miss out on simply because these individual sites aren't always picked up on the first several pages of a search engine's results. The Continuum was established to bring those sites together in one page. If anyone is interested in hosting a Continuum site, please let me know as we'd like to open sites for all 50 states and the 19 countries our surnames are found in. Currently hosted states are California, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. We also have one country, Australia, hosted. You can visit most of these sites (some are still in the construction phase) by going to the Cottage. Continuum sites can be nothing more than a page of links or a site filled with data; it's the host's choice. The point is to get all those private Bower[s]/Bauer[s]/Baur[s], etc. sites listed under one "roof." If we can get the Continuum up and fully functioning, this project can only help to benefit all of us, especially our newbies. I hope this finds each of you having a fun-filled, FANTASTIC Friday! :) Colleen Merry Ann Simmons wrote: > > Just a thought. While the mailing lists are a great source of info > along with other sites like Ancestry.com and Cyndislist, I also have > gotten great information off of personal web pages of researchers. The > only draw back is trying to find them! I know there are alot, like > me, who use these and bookmark them but we need to get them out to > others. Maybe if we have a "roll call" of sorts for great web sites we > have found with a brief description of what area or information they > cover? > > Example: www.ovis.net/~billcham/ > > This is a great page for Wetzel Co, operated by Bill Cunningham, which I > have found more info and connections off of then I could have ever > gotten from Ancestry. > > I also started using another little trick to run these sites to ground > since the search engines were not doing the job. Most of your smaller > communities use a smaller server. Bill uses "ovis.net". So I type in > www.ovis.net click on the section for "personal" pages hosted by > ovis.net. You then can scroll down to see what home pages are listed > from this site. It tells you a brief description of each one. Just > click and go. Also you can use this if you know of an area by > searching for the service provider. New Martinsville offers > rcvideo.com, they also list home pages but also under links provide a > genealogy link site to surrounding counties with reseachers homepages. > Maybe this isn't something new to others but I stumbled onto this about > 6 months ago on a late night gen searching feast! > > So if anyone has any web sites they want to share other then the very > popular ones, lets see what we can find, Merry Ann > > ==== BOWER Mailing List ==== > Need to reach Colleen, the discussion coordinator? Send her an email > at <[email protected]>.