Hi All, I have looked at the 'homepage' of the new website and have tried the surname search and have read the 'further instructions' with the result that ONLY registered names will produce any results, so how can it be claimed that any 'old name' can found? What am I doing wrong? Dissention, I thought it was healthy discussion of different views! Regards Tony Anthony John MINGAY, now in NZ once of Kent & Suffolk, England but still researching Worldwide the surname MINGAY & its variants. http://www.mingayhistory.co.uk.

Hello Tony. I'm not sure what you are saying, I'm afraid. I just input the name Radcliff, which is not a name under study, and got a few answers. When I clicked on them, I went almost straight to the results. I could see that first the Guild site looked at the cookie on my PC and accepted that I am a member. I suppose that non-members must get a reply saying sorry, but you need to join. I'll try to give you a fresh perspective on the worldwide index which I have supported since its birth. I remember even getting slapped around during its conception but I'm not going to take that analogy any farther! I'm happy with all manner of data contributed from members, rather than just names under study, for several reasons: 1) One of the unique attributes of the Guild is the collaborative spirit of its membership. We aren't just plowing our own furrows but helping others with their ploughs too. Especially in these more selfish times since the innternet personalized everything, I bow down before all of those folks who do marriage challenges, produce cardinal points or volunteer for posts in the management of the Guild. None of those are practical for me right now but recognizing the efforts of others I do my best to give back to the Guild in other ways and I believe many others feel that way too, by supporting the growth of indexes. As someone who has stood on a stand at shows, it's easy to talk about how collaborative people are but in the past it has't been as easy as it is now to demonstrate it just by running a surname search. 2) The more you see others contribute the more it is a reminder to do your share/give back and so on. 3) I remember too the fear I had when I began that I didn't know where to start. It's a lot easier to take on or begin a study when you can see that you can click on a button and interact with someone who has already contributed some data for you. It may not be a lot of data but it breaks the psychological wall. It also demonstrates collaboration to new people. 4) Most of our names under study are of British Isles origin or have been there long enough that they feel British. Some folks accuse us of British bias. We all know that we don't mean to be that way and that the principles we use are useful to a single-name studies wherever the main concentrations of that name are. If we restricted our index data only to study names, we'd never get away from that British-bias perspective, The good news is that within each of our studies, as we pursue our own names we end up with all kinds of surnames from around the world. Each may have a few, but when we add them all together we have a lot. Would you have guessed that the Guild has more occurrences of the name Lopez in our indexes than we have for Radcliff? I certainly wouldn't. Lopez as just the first really non-British surname I thought of and I know it's not a fair comparison to Radcliff but it did surprise me. 5) Finally, there's the push versus pull factor. I admit that I don't check every surname I come across in my study and contact another member if the name is under study. With such a large study I wouldn't get anything done. Much better to put it in a central store and have others tap into it when they feel like it and contact me if they want more. I've had a couple so far, which is just fine. Hope this helps a bit Paul On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 7:13 PM, mingay via <goons@rootsweb.com> wrote: > Hi All, > I have looked at the 'homepage' of the new website and have tried > the surname search and have read the 'further instructions' with the result > that ONLY registered names will produce any results, so how can it be > claimed that any 'old name' can found? What am I doing wrong? > > Dissention, I thought it was healthy discussion of different views! > > > Regards Tony > Anthony John MINGAY, now in NZ once of Kent & Suffolk, England but still > researching Worldwide the surname MINGAY & its variants. > http://www.mingayhistory.co.uk. > > _____________________________________________ > > RootsWeb lists - surnames, regions, software, etc http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GOONS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message -- Paul Howes www.howesfamilies.com Researching House, Howes, Hows, Howse & Howze worldwide