Hello ECRs, Six days ago a new resource was created for researchers, the Essex County Resource Page. The URL is: <http://resources.rootsweb.com/USA/NJ/Essex/> I won't go into the details of the page here, please feel free to check it out. There is also a link to it from the Essex County Genealogy Web Page. With this new resource I thought some of you may be confused as to who is who in this part of the Genealogy World, so here are a few descriptions. (the descriptions are mine, so they may not be "official" descriptions) RootsWeb - This is the server that the county mailing lists (NJESSEX) are on. In addition to the county mailing lists, RootsWeb is home to a large portion of the USGenWeb Project County Genealogy Sites (Essex County Genealogy), surname mailing lists, the newly created County & Surname Resource Pages, GenConnect Surname Forums and other Genealogy sites (Cyndi's, Black Sheep, The Olive Tree to name a few). The County Mailing Lists are stand alone mailing lists, meaning that there is no hierarchy of power. Each individual ListOwner controls his/her list and defines exactly what is appropriate on it. For more information on Rootsweb, go to this URL: <http://www.rootsweb.com/> For more information on the mailing lists, go to this URL: <http://www.rootsweb.com/~maillist/> The USGenWeb Project - This is a volunteer organization made up of thousands of members, each providing a web site for a county in the United States. Although RootsWeb is the server this organization is housed on, it is not it's governing body. The USGenWeb Project has a hierarchy, the County Coordinators answer to the State Coordinator who answers to the Regional Coordinator who answers to the US Coordinator. Although most RootsWeb County Mailing Lists are "owned" by the USGW CC for that county, this is not always the case and technically they have nothing to do with each other. For more information of the USGW Project, go to this URL: <http://www.usgenweb.org/index.html> WorldGenWeb - This provides the same information as the USGW Project but on a global scale. Neither organization is affiliated with the other. For more information on the WorldGenWeb, go to this URL: <http://www.worldgenweb.org/> GenConnect Forums - These are query & informational forums for surnames grouped by surnames and surnames grouped by area. You can search each individual forum for your surname or you can do a global search for your surname. The Surname Helper Query Forums, the USGenWeb Project and the WorldGenweb are also included in the global search feature. Every county in the United States now has a GenConnect Forum as well as over 15000 surnames. When using the GenConnect Forums, please remember that ONLY the query forum is for posting questions. The informational forums are for the posting of information, no questions are allowed. For more information on GenConnect, go to this URL: <http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/index.html> For more information on the GenConnect Surname Resource Pages, go to: <http://resources.rootsweb.com/surnames/> For more information on the GenConnect County Resource Pages, go to: <http://resources.rootsweb.com/USA/> For more information on the GenConnect World Wide Forums, go to: <http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/qindex.html> I think that about covers it, if you have any questions please contact me via my personal email address and not on the list. Thank You, Glenn G. Geisheimer, Iselin, New Jersey: glenng@castle.net NJEssex Mailing List Administrator Essex County, NJ Genealogy: http://www.rootsweb.com/~njessex/ Virtual Newark, NJ: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~geishome/ Essex County Query Forum: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/NJ/Essex