Documents that were added to the North Carolina USGenWeb Archives and the Tombstone Transcription Project last week are listed at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/nc/newdocs.htm One of the things that I like best about the genealogy hobby is everyone's willingness to share the information that they have found. We see this everyday with the many contributions to the North Carolina USGenWeb Archives. No better example of this can be found than one which is now underway in Onslow County. Beverly Cole is transcribing the complete Will Book 1 for Onslow County, and making the wills available to the genealogy public: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/nc/onslow/onslowwill1.htm If your research includes Onslow County, be sure to give Beverly a big thanks. On another subject, many of us are acquiring digital cameras and scanners. These devises make it very easy to digitize a document or a record. We frequently get contributions of these images, and most often have to decline. The reason is twofold: Search engines cannot pickup names which are in a digital image. This requires that acceptable images be accompanied by a text file transcription of the image. If you can make a transcription of the document, then an image is usually not required. Images of documents are considerably larger in file size than a text document containing the same information. This means that our server space would be quickly eaten up by images, when the same information could be made available in the much smaller text files. So, what type of images are acceptable? An item which cannot be accurately described by text, such as an original Civil War document, or an ornate marriage record, or other items which have heirloom quality. Some old photographs are rich in genealogical data, a good example being found at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/nc/mitchell/mvs.htm The accompanying text file needed for the search engines is at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/nc/mitchell/schools/mvs.txt If you have items that you would like to share, please let us know. No piece of information is too small or too large. You never know when one bit of information will help someone unlock their dead end. Mike File Manager, NC USGenWeb Archives

At 10:47 AM 10/14/01 -0400, Mike wrote: >On another subject, many of us are acquiring digital cameras and >scanners. These devises make it very easy to digitize a document or a >record. We frequently get contributions of these images, and most often >have to decline. The reason is twofold: >Search engines cannot pickup names which are in a digital image. This >requires that acceptable images be accompanied by a text file >transcription of the image. If you can make a transcription of the >document, then an image is usually not required. > >Images of documents are considerably larger in file size than a text >document containing the same information. This means that our server >space would be quickly eaten up by images, when the same information could >be made available in the much smaller text files. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Suggestion: Send in a transcription of the document and then include the sender's e-mail address so those who want a picture for their family files may get the digitalized image direct. For pictures of persons, tombstones, houses, etc., send a notation of what you have and then let people write direct. Good Luck! Keep Looking; keep finding! David Huffines Searching Hofheintz/Huffines/Huffhines/Hoffein/et al Also Paisley, Sikes, Underwood, Williamson, Wakefield.