On 3/20/2011 3:43 AM, J.A. Florian wrote: > I have this site and css: http://freepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~florian/ > > I wanted to take that css and change the triple border colors, the > head-banner, and the navigation, and then use it on part of my school-alumni > site. Is school alumni an acceptable use of freepages? If it is not they will delete it. That is what happened to my non genealogy material. Ian Singer -- ========================================================================= See my homepage at http://www.iansinger.com hosted on http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=10623894 All genealogy is stored in TMG from http://www.whollygenes.com Charts and searching using TNG from http://www.tngsitebuilding.com I am near Toronto Canada, can I tell where you are from your reply? =========================================================================

At 10:39 AM 3/20/2011, Ian Singer wrote: >Is school alumni an acceptable use of freepages? If it is not they will >delete it. That is what happened to my non genealogy material. Ian, As I'm sure you know, your Freepages account includes a "school-alumni" directory. However, since you are asking whether you can use it, I assume you have doubts that your intended use is acceptable use under the Freepages Agreement. Therefore, I suggest you write to accounts@rootsweb.com to ask them if your intended use is acceptable. Pat Asher List Admin

On Sun, Mar 20, 2011 at 10:39 AM, Ian Singer <ian@iansinger.com> wrote: > > Is school alumni an acceptable use of freepages? If it is not they will > delete it. That is what happened to my non genealogy material. > > Ian Singer Hi Ian, Yes, school-alumni is a set "community" (category) in freepages. I believe there are 9 "communities". The pages I'm re-doing are about "geology, geography, rocks, minerals, etc" of Pennsylvania and most specifically to SW PA under which lies the Pittsburgh Coal Seam (extends also into WVA). While "geology, geography, rocks, minerals, etc" is not in itself specific to "genealogy", what I'll be doing (once I get the CSS to display how I want it!) is to tie the non-genealogy topic TO the genealogy topic -- through the written content. All my content focuses on the LIVES of people who lived in the county. As such, you can tie in almost any topic specifically to genealogy, by what you write, what you include, and continually focusing on the people. Because my sites are for the whole county, *anyone* who fits in the topic can tie the topic in genealogy-wise. The topic of "geology, geography, rocks, minerals, etc" fits ancestral coal miners, the tools they used, the work they did, and I plan to tie into the "coal mine"/miners topic. I have biographies of different coal miners with stories of their ancestry, migration(s), their families, and descendants. Charleroi PA in Washington County PA was the birthplace of the United Mine Workers. Before that, though, there was a drive to educate and have employed only the "practical miner", meaning, those with education in rock formations, slate/slate falls, etc. and with the "practical application" of geologic and mining principles. The "practical" miner was a continual topic as the UMW formed, with the argument/opinion back then that only UMW workers could maintain the high excellence as "practical" miners (e.g. there was animosity toward those that newspapers called "foreigners" and a desire to keep out "unskilled" miners). The broader geology topic also links into migration patterns and reasons for migration; for example, why coal mines closed because of rock types and methane explosions, and how that forced men to move to new towns/States. Geology, weather, and history sometimes combine in telling the stories of people (interwoven with their family genealogy). A current example of geology, weather, and genealogy is Japan's earthquake and tsunami where over 10,000 (last estimate) have died. If a family there documented their "family history", they would include the impact that the earthquake and tsunami had-- like what caused a man to lose 3 generations of his family in one day. But for our purposes of only including historical events and ancestors, other geology/weather/history events impacted and shaped individuals, families, and communities. For example, the volcano called Tamora explosively erupted in Indonesia in April of 1815, forcing an estimated 100 cubic miles of dust, ash, and noxious gases into the atmosphere. This "cloud" traveled worldwide and caused "The Summer That Never Was". Snow fell in summer months, crops failed, people became ill, and many died--- including people in the USA. In my Baker family, the father died in the Fall of 1815; his son died 1816; and daughter (who married a LANE) within a couple years. The father's death impacted his minor children, who were raised by a related Bakers, but those children were *assumed* by researchers to belong to "that" family (because of the same surname). (The same-surname issue happened in my ANTHONY family later when a brother took his sister's children.) The father's death also impacted my LANE ancestor, first because he lost his wife, and second because he made a land deal with his father-in-law (Baker), only to have the land be returned to the estate when Baker died in 1815; Lane tried again to buy that land from the Baker son, but again, lost it back to the estate when the son died in 1816. And these failed land deals explain why he later moved, which also meant leaving his wife's grave behind on the other land. The volcano exploding in April 1815 directly or indirectly ended up changing the lives of 2 of my ancestral families through several generations. To include the information about the volcano is certainly part of my family's story (and other families in the county, as well). As another example, I have bunches of pictures of old tractors from about 1900 on. If I just put up tractor pictures with no specific tie-in to PEOPLE, that wouldn't have much to do with genealogy. But, SW PA is known for 3 primary occupations: Agricultral Farming, Coal Mining, and Sheep Farming (the other jobs being Teacher, Lawyer, Doctor, Preacher -- and Undertaker). Men couldn't do much agricultural farming because the ridges of the Appalachian mountains, though rounded from erosion, were steep, rocky and had unusable soil. The geology created the need for new types of machinery and plowing; we even had a few inventors from this county. Geology dictated that farmers raise sheep (vs cattle), and "wool associations" at local and national levels shaped the occupation. But, again, my focus is on the people and their lives. For certain occupations, I also focus on how PEOPLE did those jobs and how the jobs or changes in how the job was done impacted family as well as the community. Rootsweb has a "community" for "religions" and one for "school-alumni". Churches, "religions", beliefs, and faith is certainly not "genealogy", and neither is the brick and mortar of educational buildings, classroom artifacts, books, or school subjects. For religions, it was people who built the structures, made rules around doctrines, exercised their faith(s) through daily life and as pacifists against the country's wars, and some led the congregations. Even though the interest for many genealogists is the cemetery associated with a church, there are many OTHER ways that religions and churches impacted and shaped lives and genealogy. If we understand the forces exerted on people because of their faith or denominational choices, we also can understand how these influenced genealogy. Why did some pacifists in the Brethren church go to War but others didn't but paid a fee to not go? Why did a German Baptist attend a Protestant church? Why didn't widow Jane ever re-marry? Why did unmarried Catholic Angelina raise her baby alone; why did the baby never know his step-father wasn't his real dad? As for religion and schools together, most educated men studied one or two of four primary occupations: lawyer, doctor, teacher, or preacher. Most early schools were founded by religious leaders. Many teachers were preachers and farmers-- depending on the season. Many preachers and doctors "tutored" after regular work hours. The educational opportunities as well as obstacles shaped everyone's family and the community as a whole. And, with the "records" of churches OR schools, genealogists have another source for dates of birth, approximate ages during historical events, and so on. RW would frown on numerous webpages devoted only to a non-genealogy topic. But if the topic fits a larger subject, and relates to people's families, lives, or ancestry, it's not as off topic as it may seem at first glance. So my rule of thumb is, if a topic relates to county citizens, somehow shaped or impacted how people lived, influenced or shaped the reasoning behind decisions people made, and that influenced or altered the formation of their life story and genealogy, it is not off-topic as long as my primary focus is about "genealogy and history". The same is true for one family, but it's easier to expound on genealogical aspects when a website focuses on the citizens (any citizen) of a county. I can use multiple biographies from unrelated families; family lore/stories from an array of individuals; and photos of persons and locations. I can use Court House records, Deeds, Wills, Orphan's Court, Civil Lawsuits, and Library sources like County Histories, as well as newspaper copies or other secondary sources to weave the "family story"/"family history". I hope this helps explain how webmasters can present what seems to be off-topic material in different website "communities" and have it still relate to "genealogy and history". Judy