FROM ROOTSWEB REVIEW'S BOTTOMLESS MAILBAG -------------------------------------------- Think and Write Globally By Kevin Sheppard [email protected] I am very fond of RootsWeb and the services it offers. I can't help feel though that despite its international reach through the Internet, it remains very USA-centric. Stories in the latest Rootsweb Review begin like: "The 1930 federal census will be released 1 April by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)." .... no they won't -- our (Australian) federal census data is never released. Could you please encourage RootsWeb submitters IN GENERAL to mention the country that they are talking about. Similarly, I constantly encounter surname message board postings such as "John W. Smith m. Mary Jones 1878 KY" -- I am left totally perplexed by the KY. Please don't bother telling me where to find decodes -- rather, please encourage your submitters to think globally. Your American readers would be similarly perplexed if I was to mention "John W. Smith m. Mary Jones 1878 WA" and would be just as disinterested in having to learn the abbreviations (minus country) for the states of Australia. My family originated from the UK [United Kingdom] and appears to have traveled and settled widely during the 19th century. So researchers who limit their requests to something like KY are unlikely to ring any bells for me, whereas if they mention the full city name, state name and country name, they might strike a chord with some old family story. Your Message Boards could assist "the rest of us" by offering a drop- down list of countries that must be clicked before submission, and including a country or country-code in the subject line. Please encourage your readers to think globally, and discourage them from assuming we are all in the same country, and from using two- letter state or county abbreviations. * * * Previously published in RootsWeb Review: Vol. 5, No. 9, 27 February 2002 and written by Kevin Sheppard [email protected] ********************************************************************** \\\|/// \\ ~ ~ // ( @ @ ) ----oOOo-(_)-oOOo----McGillekehr ********************************************************************** *****Your kygenweb homepages are***** CALDWELL http://home.hiwaay.net/~woliver/caldwell.html LYON http://home.hiwaay.net/~woliver/lyon.html TRIGG http://www.kyseeker.com/trigg/index.html **********************************************************************