Suggestions: 1. E.A. has put the original of the Story of Bell County, I think, in the Belton Library. Perhaps it would be possible to ask people of Bell Co. to check these originals, maybe get copies of their specific family part, and update and add to the information so their could be a second printing. 2. Get volunteers to be in the library and county records building on certain days to receive requests for information over the internet? 2B. To have someone that these requests are sent to for collection and for distribution to volunteers who will research the records and give the "collector" the information to be returned...or to answer the requests themselves. 3. I have noticed that many of the requests I have gotten for data from Williamson and Bell Co. cross the county lines...including Milam, Lampasas, Coryell, etc. If there is a way that research could be coordinated among persons in all counties ... well, it just seems that since we were all in Milam county at one time and then in Bell and Williamson and then in counties like Coryell, we stand on ancestrial common ground...and could help each other. 4. Collect folk tales from the folks of Bell Co. Like when my great grandparents arrived in what was to be Bell Co., they were on their way to South Texas to join up with their friends, the KINGS, to start a cattle ranch and horse ranch. My ggrandmother was about five feet tall, depending on who told the story, and had had to bury one child on the trail, fight off Indians and outlaws, not to mention the hardship of the trip. My ggrandfather was about six foot five and rode a TN Walker. He had to stand up in his saddle to see over the Johnson grass. Their children would go ahead of the wagon and oxen hacking the Johnson grass down to make it easier to get the wagon through. At night, they had to walk around and around a spot to beat down the grass and then cut and clear a spot for a fire. My great grandmother, on the morning they were to push on south, crawled upon the tailgate of the wagon so she could get eyeball-to-eyeball with my ggrandfather, put her hands on her hips and told him, "John Thomas, you want to go on south to meet up with the Kings, you go right ahead. I'm tired and the children are tired and we plan to stay right here." My grandfather said she had just gotten through cleaning the big black iron skillet and she had it in one hand. She was known to out-ride and out-shoot most men but that skillet was her weapon of choice and she had put many an Indian and outlaw to sleep with it. They stayed in Bartlett. There are stories about a man and a woman crossing Donahoo and Indian Creeks and being drowned...supposedly on the nights of the full moon you can hear them calling for help. I am sure there are lots of stories to be gathered. 5. Find out the names some of the towns here went by early on...I have mentioned to several people that live in Holland that at first it was called Mountain Home and they have no knowledge of this...and they lived there all their lives. 6. Get volunteers to go out looking for old cemeteries and document who is buried there...especially those on private property. Update some of the other cemetery list, done last in the 1960's in some cases, and publish them on the web page. 7 Need to put a list of addies so people can contact county libraries, genealogy groups, records offices, etc for information. Supply copies of forms for requesting copies of documents from the county records...with costs. 8. Ask people to bring old photos and documents to a central place for scanning...or even send copies to you for scanning....I wish we could get all the pictures E.A. used again to copy....the copy machines have come a long way since the Hist. Commission did that. Maybe you could eventually have a Bell County Gallery. 9. Have a section of maps of Bell Co. when it was part of Milam and before Coryell was cut out of it. 10. Transcribe the whole two volumes of THE STORY OF BELL COUNTY, TEXAS onto the site. BTW, can you still buy copies of the two volumes of THE STORY OF BELL COUNTY, TEXAS? I would like to purchase them if I can. Hope I have not over-stepped my bounds. Ann ---------- From: Bill Bost <longwired@hotmail.com> To: TXBELL-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [TXBELL-L] New Bell County Historical Commission (BCHC) Web Page Date: Saturday, March 27, 1999 11:27 AM There is a new page on the web for the Bell County Historical Commission. It's VERY "under construction" and very rough. You might like to bookmark it, though, as it should be more helpful as more information is provided to include in it. Suggestions, ideas, and content are solicited!! The address is: http://www.rootsweb.com/~txbchc I'll start construction work for a West Bell Genealogical Society page ASAP. It will be at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~txwbgs Bill Bost ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ==== TXBELL Mailing List ==== The Bell County Genealogy And History Page Is At: http://www.rootsweb.com/~txbell