A very nice article about a couple of Texas residents who are both working on Madison County Georgia for the USGenWeb Project. David ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 22:27:15 -0500 From: Mary Love Berryman <marylove@tyler.net> To: "Madison Co, GA List" <GAMADISO-L@rootsweb.com> Cc: GAGEN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Madison County GAGenWeb Project & Archives Madison County GAGenWeb Project and Archives were highlighted in the Madison County Journal today, Wednesday, April 16. You can read about it at http://www.mainstreetnews.com/Active/Mad.html Thanks to Zach Mitchum for the nice article. Mary Love Berryman marylove@tyler.net File Manager, Madison County GAGenWeb Archives http://www.rootsweb.com/%7eusgenweb/ga/madison.htm Jeanne Arguelles ejarguelles@msn.com County Coordinator, Madison County GAGenWeb Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~gamadiso/

Congrats to Joe Zsedeny! He has gotten all the ND Federal Census images online in the USGenWeb Archives. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/nd/ Linda

thank you Isiaih! Pat ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard (Isaiah) Harrison" <IsaiahH@cox.net> To: <STATE-COORD-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 12:47 AM Subject: [STATE-COORD-L] Fwd: Mr. Harrison > State Coordinators- > > I received the following letter today and it serves as a good reminder of > how necessary it is to have some kind of site review in place to make sure > our counties are up to date. > > I've just finished preparing my Iowa county for the semi-annual review > there. You might want to take a look at their review form to find ideas to > use in your own state--http://www.rootsweb.com/~iagenweb/project_review/ > > I know some people like to refer to reviewers as "Page Police," but that's > a real negative attitude toward fulfilling our purpose--"to gather > genealogical and historical information for free online access by researchers." > > -Isaiah > > > >X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 5.5.5 > >Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 12:27:45 -0500 > >From: "Concetta Franco" <concetta.franco@BLDD.COM> > >To: <IsaiahH@cox.NET> > >Subject: Mr. Harrison > > > >Dear Mr. Harrison, > > > >I'm not really sure who to send this email to, but I saw your name as a > >national coordinator, and thought I would start there. > > > >To put it bluntly - what's happened to the GenWeb project? I spend very > >little time on many GenWeb pages because they have NOT been updated since > >2001, or some even earlier, and others have little more than a list of > >films to request from the local FHC. Half of them don't even have a map to > >help you pinpoint their location, or even a notation about what state they > >are located. > > > >Most of them are filled with bad links, and their message board links are > >still going towards Gen BBS when its now been at least a year since the > >update to Ancestry's message board system. > > > >Or - the other problem is that they are arranged so badly that it is > >confusing as to what resources one is trying to use. > > > >I was writing mainly to complain about XXXX County website. You see, I am > >trying to get a birth certificate for my step-grandmother, and I clicked > >on DOZENS of links that were broken or unupdated. So I checked the bottom > >of the page for update information and got this: > > > >You are the 22999thvisitor since October 1, 1998. > >This page launched Oct 1, 1998 > >This page last modified on Wednesday, 30-May-2001 05:48:51 MDT > > > >Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't a person who is listed as the > >Assistant State Coordinator pay more attention to his responsibilities? If > >he can't, there should be a new county coordinator elected. > > > >Or the YYYY website. There are TWO coordinators for this county, and the > >website has little of use. It points people straight to the YYYYCounty > >ALHN, but one slight problem - its the wrong link! And if you want the > >YYYY County archives, tough luck! Another broken link. Don't the > >coordinators check these things? > > > >Again, check out the last update: > > > >This page was last updated > >Tuesday, 24-Dec-2002 20:50:31 MST > > > >It seems like the coordinators do very little now except play political > >wrangling at headquarters? Or nothing at all? > > > >I'd like to say those are the only two bad ones. But they aren't. There > >are dozens and dozens of bad ones. The good ones are few and far between, > >such as Sandy Redmond, Jan Cortez, Judy Visner, and the trio of women who > >do Schuyler County, Steuben County, the Twin Tiers and Barton/Tioga > >Countys in new york. But note - these people do multiple sites, and they > >seem to be able to handle it. Why can't the others? > > > >Its very frustrating to go to these sites and not find anything. I > >understand if they have resources available and I don't find MY names in > >there, but I can't understand having nothing to access or just lists of > >widely available material. > > > >I would very much appreciate a response to this email. I am very frustrated. > > > >Thank you for your time, > > > >Concetta Franco > >

State Coordinators- I received the following letter today and it serves as a good reminder of how necessary it is to have some kind of site review in place to make sure our counties are up to date. I've just finished preparing my Iowa county for the semi-annual review there. You might want to take a look at their review form to find ideas to use in your own state--http://www.rootsweb.com/~iagenweb/project_review/ I know some people like to refer to reviewers as "Page Police," but that's a real negative attitude toward fulfilling our purpose--"to gather genealogical and historical information for free online access by researchers." -Isaiah >X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 5.5.5 >Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 12:27:45 -0500 >From: "Concetta Franco" <concetta.franco@BLDD.COM> >To: <IsaiahH@cox.NET> >Subject: Mr. Harrison > >Dear Mr. Harrison, > >I'm not really sure who to send this email to, but I saw your name as a >national coordinator, and thought I would start there. > >To put it bluntly - what's happened to the GenWeb project? I spend very >little time on many GenWeb pages because they have NOT been updated since >2001, or some even earlier, and others have little more than a list of >films to request from the local FHC. Half of them don't even have a map to >help you pinpoint their location, or even a notation about what state they >are located. > >Most of them are filled with bad links, and their message board links are >still going towards Gen BBS when its now been at least a year since the >update to Ancestry's message board system. > >Or - the other problem is that they are arranged so badly that it is >confusing as to what resources one is trying to use. > >I was writing mainly to complain about XXXX County website. You see, I am >trying to get a birth certificate for my step-grandmother, and I clicked >on DOZENS of links that were broken or unupdated. So I checked the bottom >of the page for update information and got this: > >You are the 22999thvisitor since October 1, 1998. >This page launched Oct 1, 1998 >This page last modified on Wednesday, 30-May-2001 05:48:51 MDT > >Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't a person who is listed as the >Assistant State Coordinator pay more attention to his responsibilities? If >he can't, there should be a new county coordinator elected. > >Or the YYYY website. There are TWO coordinators for this county, and the >website has little of use. It points people straight to the YYYYCounty >ALHN, but one slight problem - its the wrong link! And if you want the >YYYY County archives, tough luck! Another broken link. Don't the >coordinators check these things? > >Again, check out the last update: > >This page was last updated >Tuesday, 24-Dec-2002 20:50:31 MST > >It seems like the coordinators do very little now except play political >wrangling at headquarters? Or nothing at all? > >I'd like to say those are the only two bad ones. But they aren't. There >are dozens and dozens of bad ones. The good ones are few and far between, >such as Sandy Redmond, Jan Cortez, Judy Visner, and the trio of women who >do Schuyler County, Steuben County, the Twin Tiers and Barton/Tioga >Countys in new york. But note - these people do multiple sites, and they >seem to be able to handle it. Why can't the others? > >Its very frustrating to go to these sites and not find anything. I >understand if they have resources available and I don't find MY names in >there, but I can't understand having nothing to access or just lists of >widely available material. > >I would very much appreciate a response to this email. I am very frustrated. > >Thank you for your time, > >Concetta Franco

(**Please forward to all appropriate project lists**) The Bylaws Revision Committee (BRC) has completed a first draft revision for Section 4 of Article VII Advisory Board Procedures. Section 4. Voting records of the Advisory Board shall be posted publicly. All revision drafts may be viewed at http://home.mchsi.com/~sagitta56/ Members are encouraged to send comments or questions related to this or other revision drafts. Roger Swafford BRC - Chairman

At 11:27 AM 4/11/2003 -0500, Connie Snyder wrote: >Elsi wrote: > > > > > Ah -- but what I really want is a program where I can input a Township, > > Range, and Section and get out longitude & latitude so I can look up the > > exact -- current -- location of the land. I want to drive there in my car > > & use the current mapping software (or even satellite photos) to document > > its location. So far as I can tell, no one has written such a program. I > > suppose you'd have to start with a database containing the latitude & > > longitude for primary TRS junctions. > > > > Elsi > >You might try nosing around at the GNIS mapping site. I think they may >have some >links for something like that. GNIS will give you the lat/long for known >features. Tiger maps has the ability to input longitude/latitude. > >http://mapping.usgs.gov/ > >http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tigermap.html > >http://tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/mapbrowse-tbl Exactly -- they have the ability to input longitude & latitude. I have a land patent which only has township, range, and section -- I want someone to convert that to longitude & latitude for me! Regards, Elsi

At 10:12 PM 4/10/2003 -0700, you wrote: >Answer to #2: > >http://users.rcn.com/deeds/index.shtml > > > >--- Richard White <white@hiwaay.net> wrote: > > Hi, folks... > > > > I've got two questions I need to ask for one of our > > visitors. > > > > The questions are... > > > > 1. Has anyone begun work putting the soundex cards > > online? > > > > 2. Is there a site or any software that will allow > > you to input township > > and range or metes and bounds of property lines and > > output a map of the > > location of that property? Ah -- but what I really want is a program where I can input a Township, Range, and Section and get out longitude & latitude so I can look up the exact -- current -- location of the land. I want to drive there in my car & use the current mapping software (or even satellite photos) to document its location. So far as I can tell, no one has written such a program. I suppose you'd have to start with a database containing the latitude & longitude for primary TRS junctions. Elsi

Elsi wrote: > > Ah -- but what I really want is a program where I can input a Township, > Range, and Section and get out longitude & latitude so I can look up the > exact -- current -- location of the land. I want to drive there in my car > & use the current mapping software (or even satellite photos) to document > its location. So far as I can tell, no one has written such a program. I > suppose you'd have to start with a database containing the latitude & > longitude for primary TRS junctions. > > Elsi You might try nosing around at the GNIS mapping site. I think they may have some links for something like that. GNIS will give you the lat/long for known features. Tiger maps has the ability to input longitude/latitude. http://mapping.usgs.gov/ http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tigermap.html http://tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/mapbrowse-tbl Connie

If you're looking for western states: http://www.geocities.com/jeremiahobrien/trs2ll.html Looks like he added a couple of states since I downloaded the program. The version I have covers WA, OR, CA, NM, NV, AZ, UT, ID, MT, WY, CO, SD, NE and KS (1995) It now covers AR AZ CA CO ID KS MT ND NE NM NV OK OR SD UT WA WY (2002) I have used this both ways, taking cemetery locations given in T-R-S and converting to latitude and longitude to pinpoint them on a topo map and taking lat/long from the GNIS web site and converting to T-R-S to pinpoint them on a map in a county atlas or farm directory. Last I heard he wanted $500 to add a state of your choice. (That was in 1996 dollars) I just downloaded the 2002 version. It is still a DOS program, but will co-exist with WindowsXP. It is not extremely user friendly, but if you print out the documentation and look at the examples, it does work beautifully. The MT State U has created a web interface for the program: Lat/Long to TRS http://www.esg.montana.edu/gl/trs-data.html TRS to Lat/Long http://www.esg.montana.edu/gl/xy-data.html so even the DOS impaired can use it. --- Elsi <elsi@augustmail.com> wrote: > > Ah -- but what I really want is a program where I > can input a Township, > Range, and Section and get out longitude & latitude > so I can look up the > exact -- current -- location of the land. I want to > drive there in my car > & use the current mapping software (or even > satellite photos) to document > its location. So far as I can tell, no one has > written such a program. I > suppose you'd have to start with a database > containing the latitude & > longitude for primary TRS junctions. > > Elsi > __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more http://tax.yahoo.com

Hi, folks... I've got two questions I need to ask for one of our visitors. The questions are... 1. Has anyone begun work putting the soundex cards online? 2. Is there a site or any software that will allow you to input township and range or metes and bounds of property lines and output a map of the location of that property? ... and the answers are ???? Richard White ALGenWeb State Coordinator

Answer to #2: http://users.rcn.com/deeds/index.shtml --- Richard White <white@hiwaay.net> wrote: > Hi, folks... > > I've got two questions I need to ask for one of our > visitors. > > The questions are... > > 1. Has anyone begun work putting the soundex cards > online? > > 2. Is there a site or any software that will allow > you to input township > and range or metes and bounds of property lines and > output a map of the > location of that property? > > ... and the answers are ???? > > Richard White > ALGenWeb State Coordinator > __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more http://tax.yahoo.com

Just in case some of your CCs are still using the old cgi.genconnect URLs for their queries, those links are now dead. Texas had 14 counties with dead links to query boards when I first noticed that they no longer worked, on March 14. We now have just one county that has not upgraded to the boards.ancestry.com link, or provided another way to handle queries. David David W. Morgan damorgan@nyx.net Honolulu Hawaii SC - TXGenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~txgenweb/ FM - http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/tx/txfiles.htm ** http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~dmorgan/

At 06:48 PM 4/6/2003 -0400, Larry wrote: >It has been quite some time since I received a list to update. The last >few times I have only received a request to sent in my current list of CCs. If you have a preference, let the EC member know. Some may not send lists because it's not known what type of software the SC has. Also, some of our EC members don't have Excel, so must work with text files. >I do keep an Excel spreadsheet and try very hard to keep it current. All >information is set to black each time I send in an update. I then use >other colors of text to indicate changes in email addresses, a change in >CC for a county and even the occasional change in name when one gets married. Sounds perfect to me. :-) I've only been EC Chair for a few months, but it's been my experience as SC that the EC tries hard to accommodate everyone. I hope we're continuing with that policy. I would just encourage everyone, if you have a problem or question, please ask your EC rep. Let's work it out. I kinda feel we're all in this together, the goal being to see that every volunteer has an opportunity to vote. Thanks, Ellen

At 04:10 PM 04/06/2003 -0500, you wrote: >The EC maintains voter lists sorted by last name, first name, first and >last name, email address, state, region, position. We have to be >consistent, so if that's the order in which you receive a list to update, >it's because we have to sort them like that. > >Names may be slightly different, but there's a good reason for that, >also. There's Jane Doe, Janie Doe, and Janey Doe. The EC has the task of >determining whether these three names are one person, two persons, or >three persons. Sometimes it's not easy, especially if Ms. Doe uses >different email address for each state/county. > >A similar situation occurs with hyphenated surnames. >Susie Jones-Smith may reach us as: It has been quite some time since I received a list to update. The last few times I have only received a request to sent in my current list of CCs. I do keep an Excel spreadsheet and try very hard to keep it current. All information is set to black each time I send in an update. I then use other colors of text to indicate changes in email addresses, a change in CC for a county and even the occasional change in name when one gets married. If a CC is replaced, I move all their information to a second table five lines below the primary table. Here I add another column for date that the CC was replaced and one for the reason for the change. If there are any changes that occur within two weeks or so of the date that I send in my current list, I then send additional email as needed to further update my latest list. I did volunteer and helped with the checking for duplicates and possible usage of different version of a CCs name the first two times that names and email addresses were collected. I was never ask to do this after those two times (not sure if I did too good a job or did not do a good enough job) but I do understand how the process works. Les Shockey Les Shockey email address = lshockey@citynet.net or wvgenweb@citynet.net RootsWeb Listowner for the SHOCKEY family discussion group. SHOCKEY-L@rootsweb.com Visit the Jackson County, WVGenWeb Page, part of USGenWeb Project at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvjackso/JACK.HTM Visit the (West Virginia) WVGenWeb: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvgenweb/

Maybe I can answer a few questions about the Voter Lists. The EC maintains voter lists sorted by last name, first name, first and last name, email address, state, region, position. We have to be consistent, so if that's the order in which you receive a list to update, it's because we have to sort them like that. Names may be slightly different, but there's a good reason for that, also. There's Jane Doe, Janie Doe, and Janey Doe. The EC has the task of determining whether these three names are one person, two persons, or three persons. Sometimes it's not easy, especially if Ms. Doe uses different email address for each state/county. A similar situation occurs with hyphenated surnames. Susie Jones-Smith may reach us as: Smith, Susie Jones (incorrect) Jones, Susie (incorrect) Smith, Susie (incorrect) Jones-Smith, Susie (correct) Again, the EC has to determine if they are all the same person or not. Once we make a determination, we try to be consistent in presentation so we won't send out two or more passwords to the same person. The name is one of the identifying markers the software uses. Hope this helps, Ellen At 11:12 PM 4/2/2003 -0500, you wrote: >At 08:54 PM 04/02/2003 -0500, you wrote: >>Wouldn't it be great if we could have a password-protected up-load page????? >>That way we could submit timely changes, without regard to a time-line. >>Why should we NOT be working towards real-time reports???? >>And, for goodness sake, PLEASE settle on a standard format!!! > >I agree with the last line of this especially. My previous EC contact >wanted the lists in an Excel spreadsheet. This was not a problem for me >except that this person took my name column, split the names into two >columns and then sorted on given name. I had the name column as Surname, >Given name as in Smith, Mary. Where it really became tough is if they >knew or decided to use a different given name or a nickname than what I >knew the CC as. Now my present EC contact does not have Excel and a >"copy" from Excel and a "paste" into Eudora results in a weird look in my >email as I prefer not to use the Microsoft viewer option in Eudora Pro. > >Another problem for me, I have lost more CCs because they get tired of so >many forwarded messages regarding elections, bylaws changes, politics and >policy changes that they start filtering messages from the state list and >then fail to respond when I really need them to. It should not be >necessary to write private notes to each CC in a state to confirm an >address as good and make sure the person sees a message. Many believe it >is absolutely necessary that their messages be forwarded to every CC and >most CCs prefer not be bothered with the politics. They want to do the >best they can for their county and not be interrupted by unimportant items. > >Les Shockey

Speaking of new SCs I don't believe the new SC for Minnesota has been added here either: Terri Shipp - rwfonkenmn@worldnet.att.net Could she please be added? Thanks, Tim

At 07:03 AM 4/5/03 -0800, you wrote: >Hello, > >Please subscribe Jan Bony, the new Oregon State Coordinator, to this list. Her email is jbony@ochoco.com. Please unsubscribe Jan Phillips, the outgoing SC, beardog@peak.org. > >Thank you. > >Jan Phillips Congratulations Jan Bony, the new SC for Oregon. Best wishes to you Jan in your future endeavors. Tim Stowell SC North Dakota SC Georgia

Check this out: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030404/ap_on_hi_te/archive_avalanche_2 All of that stuff has to be on one line __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more http://tax.yahoo.com

Hello, Please subscribe Jan Bony, the new Oregon State Coordinator, to this list. Her email is jbony@ochoco.com. Please unsubscribe Jan Phillips, the outgoing SC, beardog@peak.org. Thank you. Jan Phillips

At 08:54 PM 04/02/2003 -0500, you wrote: >Wouldn't it be great if we could have a password-protected up-load page????? >That way we could submit timely changes, without regard to a time-line. >Why should we NOT be working towards real-time reports???? >And, for goodness sake, PLEASE settle on a standard format!!! I agree with the last line of this especially. My previous EC contact wanted the lists in an Excel spreadsheet. This was not a problem for me except that this person took my name column, split the names into two columns and then sorted on given name. I had the name column as Surname, Given name as in Smith, Mary. Where it really became tough is if they knew or decided to use a different given name or a nickname than what I knew the CC as. Now my present EC contact does not have Excel and a "copy" from Excel and a "paste" into Eudora results in a weird look in my email as I prefer not to use the Microsoft viewer option in Eudora Pro. Another problem for me, I have lost more CCs because they get tired of so many forwarded messages regarding elections, bylaws changes, politics and policy changes that they start filtering messages from the state list and then fail to respond when I really need them to. It should not be necessary to write private notes to each CC in a state to confirm an address as good and make sure the person sees a message. Many believe it is absolutely necessary that their messages be forwarded to every CC and most CCs prefer not be bothered with the politics. They want to do the best they can for their county and not be interrupted by unimportant items. Les Shockey Les Shockey email address = lshockey@citynet.net or wvgenweb@citynet.net RootsWeb Listowner for the SHOCKEY family discussion group. SHOCKEY-L@rootsweb.com Visit the Jackson County, WVGenWeb Page, part of USGenWeb Project at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvjackso/JACK.HTM Visit the (West Virginia) WVGenWeb: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvgenweb/