-----Original Message----- From: Margie Campbell [mailto:margecam@attbi.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 3:33 PM To: CA-DEATH-INDEX-L; NORCAL-D@rootsweb.com Cc: SheleeBebo@aol.com; CA-SanJoa-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Look up requests-duplicates Hi. I just got back from the San Joaquin county recorders office. I had submitted 7 death certificate requests... and when I got there.. someone else had submitted over 1 dozen, my 7 were among those. Furthermore... there were about half dozen or so that I have already done months ago. This is partially my fault, since I was contacted off the list, I didn't think to check the list or post that I was doing these. I did request the submitter's let me know if they get help from someone else... two did. To make it easier we need to make sure we are all in sync here... We have a new volunteer in SJcounty.. she is really eager to help... our recorders office is very busy... so I have the following tips to save us all time & trouble: 1. If you don't have a death date, actual county of death.. but want to just hunt around to see if you find your person... don't ask for a death certificate transcription.. ask someone to check the city directories, cemeteries, etc. for your person. (There were several requests that I had already checked for in this batch, trust me, if I can find a way to locate a death certificate, I would have done so...if I say not there, then not there or given information not correct). 2. If you have all the information from the social security death index/CA death index, then when you post & get a reply from a volunteer, make sure to let the list know & make sure to let any other person who volunteers to help know who the other volunteer is. It really is upsetting to make a special trip (30+ miles round trip for me), pay for parking & find that someone else is doing the same request. This was a two day trip.. drop the requests off & then return to view them.. two days... 60+ miles... and parking... 3. There was a huge list of one family's surnames... if you are a paid genealogist, don't ask us to do your job for you. If you are being paid.. then you need to be paying the lookup persons expenses. I have seen requests for 15+ names at a time. Be realistic. 4. There is nothing more upsetting than finding that you have given a name & date for someone and it turns out they died in another state. Do your homework first. I think what we need is a website link that will allow us to get requests specifically for our county. It is a simple method.. Just a mailto link with a predetermined subject line... "DCT San Joaquin county". The note goes to the volunteer or mail list administrator, who forwards to ONE volunteer only... no dupes that way. I am going to ammend my site this week to include a note to please let me know if the request has been posted elsewhere.. and I will let the mail list hosts know I have a request... even if from my website. Sorry to be so winded... just a lot of precious time wasted... and must be very discouraging for a new volunteer. Marge -----Original Message----- From: NORCAL-D-request@rootsweb.com [mailto:NORCAL-D-request@rootsweb.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 8:05 AM To: NORCAL-D@rootsweb.com Subject: NORCAL-D Digest V02 #1355