Folks I have to get on the bandwagon again. First, our genealogy societies all across the country are pretty much operated by unpaid volunteers so rather than talk negatively about their people or the operation thereof just thank them for their time and effort for being there just for us. Also concerning societies, they are on "bad times" most all of the time. If we would buy the materials, that we could use, that they have for sale it would help tremendously. Maintaining records for all to use. I have been in many libraries, societies and courthouses and always see abuse of the records. The Rutherford County Register of Deeds Office has a large room with the oldest records stored there. You are free to do research in the room unsupervised as you see fit. I have never been in that room when all the books were in order on their shelves unless I took the time to put them up, which I have many times. There are deed records just ripped out of the books and I have been in the roo! m when researchers, just like you and me, have walked out and left the room in a total mess. So we wonder why some places have such stringent rules. We also get perturbed when we are looking for records and the courthouse personel tells us that all those records are at the Archives. I have never been to the NC Archives but I would bet that they have rules to protect the records they have. We should treat every record that we touch like it was the very last copy in existance and in many cases it is. As most of you know I have did a little record gathering and making it available to everyone completely free. I am not the only one that has done this.Many, many people donate a considerable amount time and expense gathering and abstracting material for all to use. Then we have those that ask, why isn't such and such cemetery online. I won't this one online, why not index a year of newspapers and on and on we go. We are not paid, it only cost us time, work and expense to have what we have. All could contribute most don't. The digital camera can be a big bonus in preserving and making available to the public. The problem is the files take up extreme amounts of server space and therefore they just cannot be made available online and they are slow to upload and download on telephone modems. My suggestion is that we use at least a 3 megapixel camera and photograph the records that we have available and let our local societies sell them at a fair price on CD's. They are very readable as they are taken and anyone with the CD can enhance as they see fit. Check my webpage at http://www.rfci.net/wdfloyd and go to the Old Tryon Society page to see what we are doing. I have just completed the year 1928 of a Rutherfordton, NC weekly newspaper that I am sure the society will offer it at $10 to $20 per CD. I know this was a little long winded and a little commercial but I also thought it needed saying. We also have some people that are taken for granted and that is our mail list owners. They get paid all those big bucks just like all the other volunteers for all their work in maintaining a smooth running list. They scold people, like me, for creating controversy so I am asking anyone that has derrogatory remarks to send them directly to me at wdfloyd@rfci.net and anyone that has anything to add to all the noise from me can do it on the list. Bill

Bill, Thank you for saying it so well. You have done so much and I appreciate it tremendously. Thank you for helping me out in so many ways you don't even know to get my family lines understood. Lynn Wesson Chapel Hill, NC -----Original Message----- From: W. D. Floyd [mailto:wdfloyd@rfci.net] Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 10:56 AM To: NCRUTHER-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [NCRUTHER-L] Genealogy Records Folks I have to get on the bandwagon again. First, our genealogy societies all across the country are pretty much operated by unpaid volunteers so rather than talk negatively about their people or the operation thereof just thank them for their time and effort for being there just for us. Also concerning societies, they are on "bad times" most all of the time. If we would buy the materials, that we could use, that they have for sale it would help tremendously. Maintaining records for all to use. I have been in many libraries, societies and courthouses and always see abuse of the records. The Rutherford County Register of Deeds Office has a large room with the oldest records stored there. You are free to do research in the room unsupervised as you see fit. I have never been in that room when all the books were in order on their shelves unless I took the time to put them up, which I have many times. There are deed records just ripped out of the books and I have been in the roo! m when researchers, just like you and me, have walked out and left the room in a total mess. So we wonder why some places have such stringent rules. We also get perturbed when we are looking for records and the courthouse personel tells us that all those records are at the Archives. I have never been to the NC Archives but I would bet that they have rules to protect the records they have. We should treat every record that we touch like it was the very last copy in existance and in many cases it is. As most of you know I have did a little record gathering and making it available to everyone completely free. I am not the only one that has done this.Many, many people donate a considerable amount time and expense gathering and abstracting material for all to use. Then we have those that ask, why isn't such and such cemetery online. I won't this one online, why not index a year of newspapers and on and on we go. We are not paid, it only cost us time, work and expense to have what we have. All could contribute most don't. The digital camera can be a big bonus in preserving and making available to the public. The problem is the files take up extreme amounts of server space and therefore they just cannot be made available online and they are slow to upload and download on telephone modems. My suggestion is that we use at least a 3 megapixel camera and photograph the records that we have available and let our local societies sell them at a fair price on CD's. They are very readable as they are taken and anyone with the CD can enhance as they see fit. Check my webpage at http://www.rfci.net/wdfloyd and go to the Old Tryon Society page to see what we are doing. I have just completed the year 1928 of a Rutherfordton, NC weekly newspaper that I am sure the society will offer it at $10 to $20 per CD. I know this was a little long winded and a little commercial but I also thought it needed saying. We also have some people that are taken for granted and that is our mail list owners. They get paid all those big bucks just like all the other volunteers for all their work in maintaining a smooth running list. They scold people, like me, for creating controversy so I am asking anyone that has derrogatory remarks to send them directly to me at wdfloyd@rfci.net and anyone that has anything to add to all the noise from me can do it on the list. Bill ==== NCRUTHER Mailing List ==== Subscribing: Clicking on one of the shortcut links below should work, but if your browser doesn't understand them, try these manual instructions: to join NCRUTHER-L, send mail to NCRUTHER-L-request@rootsweb.com with the single word subscribe in the message subject and body. To join NCRUTHER-D, do the same thing with NCRUTHER-D-request@rootsweb.com. Unsubscribing: To leave NCRUTHER-L, send mail to NCRUTHER-L-request@rootsweb.com with the single word unsubscribe in the message subject and body. To leave NCRUTHER-D, do the same thing with NCRUTHER-D-request@rootsweb.com. For questions about this list, contact the list administrator at NCRUTHER-admin@rootsweb.com