At 11:25 AM 1/14/06, Robert L. Ward wrote: >The prices range from $29.50 for a single CD to a few hundred >dollars for sets of CDs covering some of the larger groups of >records. See <http://www.pictonpress.com> for further details. > >There are about 400 (yes, FOUR HUNDRED!) towns represents in this >collection. What a fabulous resource for genealogical research! > >It would be terrific to get WHITNEY extracts from all of them and >to post them on the WRG web site. That would be a lot of work, >but very valuable to have. I guess I wasn't very clear. Each of the towns is on either a single CD or a small set of CDs. The cheapest towns are $29.50, and the most expensive are close to $200. Thus the entire collection would be somewhere in the $30,000 vicinity. That makes the purchase of the entire set beyond the means of any small group of researchers. For details, see their catalog of Maine items at http://www.pictonpress.com/catalog/books1.htm?cat_id=18&name=Maine and click on the particular town's records, in the form "[Town name], Maine: Original Records of Maine Towns and Cities". I think our best hope would be to find a large genealogical library who would own the set, and do the transcription there. The NEHGS in Boston comes to mind, as well as the Maine State Library. Possibly members who have a particular interest in one of the towns would invest in the CDs for that town and supply the Whitney items to the WRG. I have no idea whether there are any indexes included or not. I rather expect that the only indexes would be ones in the original handwritten records, if any. Regards, Robert Mr. Robert L. Ward RLWard AT WhitneyGen DOT org http://www.WhitneyGen.org/home.html

Robert, I transcribed the VR's from several towns in Maine, which now exist in our Archives. The records I used were from the Maine Historical Society. Peg Sanborn also transcribed several but I don't know where she got hers. As for the libraries that are likely to have many of these CD's try the Maine Hist. Soc., and U. Maine library, as well as the Maine State Library. In Massachusetts, one might also find many at the Haverhill Public Library. Due to serious eye problems, I can no longer drive to those destinations, nor can I volunteer to transcribe any longer..Good luck! Cheers, Jan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert L. Ward" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2006 9:05 AM Subject: [WHITNEY-L] Re: New CDs of Maine Town Records > At 11:25 AM 1/14/06, Robert L. Ward wrote: >>The prices range from $29.50 for a single CD to a few hundred >>dollars for sets of CDs covering some of the larger groups of >>records. See <http://www.pictonpress.com> for further details. >> >>There are about 400 (yes, FOUR HUNDRED!) towns represents in this >>collection. What a fabulous resource for genealogical research! >> >>It would be terrific to get WHITNEY extracts from all of them and >>to post them on the WRG web site. That would be a lot of work, >>but very valuable to have. > > I guess I wasn't very clear. Each of the towns is on either a > single CD or a small set of CDs. The cheapest towns are $29.50, > and the most expensive are close to $200. Thus the entire > collection would be somewhere in the $30,000 vicinity. That makes > the purchase of the entire set beyond the means of any small group > of researchers. For details, see their catalog of Maine items at > http://www.pictonpress.com/catalog/books1.htm?cat_id=18&name=Maine > and click on the particular town's records, in the form > "[Town name], Maine: Original Records of Maine Towns and Cities". > > I think our best hope would be to find a large genealogical > library who would own the set, and do the transcription there. > The NEHGS in Boston comes to mind, as well as the Maine State > Library. Possibly members who have a particular interest in one > of the towns would invest in the CDs for that town and supply the > Whitney items to the WRG. > > I have no idea whether there are any indexes included or not. I > rather expect that the only indexes would be ones in the original > handwritten records, if any. > > Regards, > > Robert > > Mr. Robert L. Ward > RLWard AT WhitneyGen DOT org > http://www.WhitneyGen.org/home.html