Hi Rita, I will answer the questions in the "volunteer's" letter as I am able: First, the "Pre-1907" indexes were created by the State Vital Records office in Madison, not the WPA which was active back in the 30s-early 40s. The indexes were computer-generated and funding ran out before they could finish the marriage index. That is why it only covers Adams to part of Racine Cos. Yes, the indexes are chock full of errors and omissions, but as you all know, they are still very useful. I have asked the "where is the computer file" question of Paul Hedges, current webmaster of the State Historical Society. The question was asked in the context of the Society's consideration to post the marriage indexes currently being compiled for the "missed" counties of Racine through Wood on their web site. He said, very chagrined, that the Society had looked into using the computer files and learned that they had been thrown out by the State Vital Records office. A great pity. Now, as to Oconto Co. reels. First, if the volunteer is in Oshkosh, they can go to the Area Research Center of the SHSW at UW-Oshkosh, Forrest R. Polk Library, 800 Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, WI 54901 (920) 424-0828. Oconto Co. is not within this ARC's territory, but records from Oconto (which are housed at the UW-Green Bay ARC) can be transferred to Oshkosh within a week or two. They will have film readers the volunteer can use. The Green Bay ARC, (920) 465-2539, should have copies of the Oconto marriage films. They may only have one set though, so a phone call to find out if they will loan them to Oshkosh would be wise. The transfer should be requested early enough to be delivered before Spring Break. All the ARCs pretty much shut down during breaks since most are on UW campuses. I am not familiar with any way to purchase copies of WI vital records films. I am fairly certain this would be illegal. The State Historical Society in Madison has copies of the Oconto films, but they are not available through interlibrary loan and are also not loaned to the ARCs. Also, as someone already mentioned, these films are available via the Family History Centers. The GSU did the original filming and so has copies. Last, I would suggest the volunteer contact Judy Vezzetti <vezzetti@facstaff.wisc.edu>. She is spear-heading the marriage indexing project for the "missing" counties. I know her ultimate goal is to "fix" the available Pre-1907 marriage indexes as well. I'm sure the volunteer would be interested in learning the format that Judy has been using (very complete). Best of luck! Dawn M. Knauft, CGRS Coordinator, Dane Co. WiGenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~widane WiSearch, Professional Genealogical Research http://www.wisearch.net >From: zorblitz@mindspring.com (zorblitz) >To: WIGEN-L@rootsweb.com >Hello All, > >I received this letter yesterday, and would really like some input on >the many pertainent and complicated questions asked here, as I am no >expert. I believe that this is of general interest and use to most on >this list and I would like to give the best reply possible, because we >all know that " a motivated volunteer is a terrible thing to waste". >Thank you so much! Rita - Oconto CC >Hi! > >I was excited to see that someone else looked at those crazy pre-1907 >marriage fiche too! > >This may sound like a stupid question and I suppose that I could hunt >down the right "older" person at the Historical Society, but the >information on the fiche was generated by a computer in the 1980s???. >Where is that data now? Why would someone have to retype that in. I >kind of figure it has to be on some old mainframe on the UW Madison >campus and has not been touched in years, but is on a big tape at the >Historical Society that they would have to load on some machine. The >computer people should then be able to export it to a text file that >could be read by a word processor and loaded to the various webs. >What do you know about this? > > >Now, I personally have a problem with the information on the fiche AND >since you are "in charge" of Oconto Co. maybe you could help me with >one of my crazy ideas! It appears that some of my relatives are not >listed in the index, but when I go to the actual rolls of film, they >are there and the film is quite readable. What I would like to >o ---- and I'm not too sure how fast I could do it -- or where to >start, would be to create a database of the information found on the >records from the 2 rolls of Oconto Co. Marriage Licenses (pre-1907). > >1. Do you have copies of the rolls that UW GB has that I could >borrow? >2. If not, do you know who does? >3. Are copies available for sale? >4. Do you know who might have a film reader that I might >borrow/rent during spring break? (March 17-25) > > >Getting the film to Oshkosh is my first priority. I would like to >work starting in March, preferably at home, but I could always take my >laptop computer with me to the public library or create paper forms >(ugh). > >I found all sorts of information on the actual licenses that helped me >trace spouses and other information on women's married and maiden >names. If it were in a database, it could be sorted by church, >minister, dates, birthplaces, as well as searched by names..... >parents, bridesmaids, etc. > >So, what do you think? Can you help???? > >Kathy