The USGenWeb Project News
Volume 5, Number 1
January 2008
Project News
Page Banners
The Advisory Board is still negotiating with RootsWeb and The Generations Network (Ancestry.com)
about the banners TGN wants to put on the Project sites.
Election Committee - New Members
The EC has seated its new members and elected its 2008 officers. Shirley Cullum was elected
EC Chair and Paula Vaughn as Publicist Secretary
Fact Finding Group
Every so often over the years the subject of incorporating the Project pops up. This time the
Advisory Board decided to find out if incorporating as a non-profit would benefit the Project
or not so they established a Fact Finding Group. The committee's first report can be found at:
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BOARD/2007-12/1197467682
Grievance Committee
The Grievance Committee is looking for new members.
See: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BOARD/2007-12/1197267961
for details.
Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) membership - 2008
Once again an anonymous donor has paid the Project's membership fees. For the past couple of
years the Friends of the USGenWeb Project has had a booth at the FGS annual conference.
Newsletter Committee
If you have any news, have a suggestion for a tutorial, etc. please contact the NL editor:
editorusgenwebnl@gmail.com
Other News of Interest
PBS is airing the 2nd part of its African American Lives series in early Feb. The previews
say "Once again, this is essential viewing for anyone interested in genealogy, history, or
powerful stories of humanity." Information and local viewing times at
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/aal2/
4th Annual Family History EXPO in St. George, Utah
http://www.myancestorsfound.com/events/upcoming.php?event_id=1
Formerly known as the Genealogy and Family Heritage Jamboree, this conference/convention probably
has the largest attendance of plain, everyday family historians. The past two or three years
Project members have hosted a USGenWeb Project booth at the conference and will do so again this
year. The Project's booth is always a busy place and each year the volunteers run out of handouts.
If you'd like to put together a handout for your state or county here's a page that has helpful hints
- http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~usgwpub/index.htm. If you have questions about where to send handouts etc.
contact Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com.
Spotlight County of the Month Award
Barry County, Mo.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mobarry/barry.htm
Donna Haddock Cooper, County Coordinator
Barry Co., Mo. is a shinning example of what the founders of the USGenWeb Project had in mind.
The site is filled with information for the Barry Co. Mo. researcher - transcribed and abstracted
records, history, photos, maps and much more , all presented in a easy to use, visitor friendly layout.
Full article: http://www.usgenweb.org/newsletter/articles/200801/spotlight1.shtml
Tutorial
Creating County Maps with Google Maps API
By Joy Fisher
I created my first Google map from scratch:
http://www.sdgenweb.com/union/cemeterymap/countymap.html
I started out by going to the Geonames Server and collecting a list of all the cemeteries in their
database for Union Co., SD. I carefully converted all the latitude and longitude from degrees, minutes
and seconds to decimal degrees. I created a template for adding a map marker for each cemetery,
including a link to my cemetery file for that cemetery. Lastly I created a boundary file with the
latitude and longitude of all the points that make up the county boundary. The boundary file was
generated...
Full article: http://www.usgenweb.org/newsletter/articles/200801/countymaps.shtml
Links of Interest
USGenWeb Map Project
Not every state has maps available but it's an excellent resource:
http://usgwarchives.net/maps/
1914 Atlas: Janie found this old atlas and is putting all the maps on line. She is offering
them freely to any CC who would like to put one on their site.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~shastaca/maps_index.html
Historical map - University of Texas.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/map_sites/hist_sites.html.
A free site with links to all kinds of maps.
Map History / History of Cartography: THE Gateway to the Subject: A free site with a huge number of
links to individual maps or sites with lots of maps.
http://www.maphistory.info/imageus.html
Odden's Bookmarks - The Fascinating World of Maps and Mapping.
http://oddens.geog.uu.nl/index.php.
Fascinating is a good description of this site. Links to all kinds of maps and mapping information.
Library of Congress: American Memory Map Collections -
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/.
Railroad Maps, 1828-1900 -
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/rrhtml/rrhome.html
1895 U.S. Atlas. http://www.livgenmi.com/1895/.
Pam Rietsch has spent the last few years putting this historical atlas on-line.
Featured Article
Where to Draw the Line?
by Everette Carr, County Coordinator
Attala County, MS
Clay County, MS
As county coordinators for USGenWeb, we have all had to draw a line on how much, if any time, we would
devote to doing research for others. Many CC's solve the problem early on by posting a statement
to the effect that they do not do any research for other individual researchers/family historians.
Few of us have a personal library filled with material for the counties we host. We often have
less research material than the average researcher...
Full article: http://www.usgenweb.org/newsletter/articles/200801/drawtheline.shtml
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