To my fellow Bell County list subscribers, Just thought I would post the first of what I hope will be a regular series of updates concerning the Bell County Genealogy and History Pages on Rootsweb. Since I assumed responsibility of coordinator from Bill Bost (who did impressive work on the site) last October, I have had a lot of ideas to implement but not enough time to put them into place. Well, at least some things have settled down in my daily life a bit (mostly job change) and I hope to work on these plans somewhat more aggressively. However, I definitely need your assistance and input to optimize the results. I really appreciate those of you who have already volunteered your time for such endeavors and I can assure you I will be contacting you soon! Following are some of the events which will be taking place over the next few weeks and months. Some of them simply involve cleanup and organizing the existing resources we have online, while others are a bit more ambitious. 1) Update the surname list, family site lists, and resource links on the main Bell County site. I have already recently cleaned up some of the invalid e-mail addresses which were passed on to me over the last few months. Possibly by this weekend, I will be sending e-mail to the remaining people listed on the surname and site lists. If you receive that e-mail, please check those resources to see that your listing is still accurate. Any e-mails that bounce will result in that person being removed from the appropriate list. After that cleanup has been completed, I will solicit new additions from the subscribers and continue to maintain those lists. My eventual plan is to construct a form online to submit such requests. 2) Create a new section for historical photos of Bell County locations and people. I am still working on the criteria for submissions. Thanks to John Galure, who has sent me some great old photos from Wilson Valley which were given to him from a Wilson descendent. If you have some Bell County photos of historical significance, drop me a note. Depending on the format, size, and quantity, I can decide how best to have them sent. At this time, please contact me before sending any material, so that my e-mail does not overflow with attachments. The website is already under construction and will be searchable from the main search engine. 3) Create a new section for historical documents, essays, and publications of Bell County. Again, thanks to John Galure we have a couple of submissions already. Both of these are in hardcopy and will need to be transcribed or scanned. I also still need to contact the owners for written permission to post the material. As we have seen in the past, it is very important to avoid any copyright or other legal complications. If you have similar material to contribute, feel free to contact me with the details. 4) One idea I had early on was to post a regular series of interviews with Bell County folks who have substantial knowledge or experience with local history and resources. Earlier this year, I got permission from my first subject and I am in process of assembling some questions to send her. These articles will be posted both to the website and e-mail list. I have a few other people in mind for future interviews and will be approaching them soon. 5) A long term project I have in mind will be called "Bell County Legacy." This effort will focus on expanding Bell County's digital archives. Its success will definitely depend on volunteer efforts! Examples of material for the digital archives included cemetery transcriptions, census indexing, typing/scanning documents and photos, and locating online resources such as maps and other sites. I hope to have the cooperation of the local genealogical societies, libraries, and individuals for this aggressive effort! I am in process of creating a dedicated discussion list for this project, so not to disrupt the regular activity on this list. An announcement will be made when that is available. If you are interested in assisting or even just have some ideas, I would really like to hear from you. As I have mentioned last week, I will be in Belton on April 22 during the Charter Oak Election Day celebration for the sesquicentennial. Anyone who wants to meet up while I am there for the weekend, let me know! Thanks for your attention... Joe D. Deaver BellCoTX Coordinator http://www.rootsweb.com/~txbell/ ancestry@deaver.com