GeneaBabble

I’ve been out of the loop for a while and just heard today about many of the sites associated with USGenWeb moving off of the RootsWeb servers.  You can read more about it here and here.

I think it’s great that they are disassociating (is that a word?) themselves with The Generations Network.  I’ve always believed in the free exchange of information and TGN’s policies are counter to this philosophy.  Don’t get me wrong - I’m not against commercialism or the selling of information.  That’s just not the point of the USGenWeb project.  It should be interesting, anyway, to see how RootsWeb develops from here on out.

If John McCain becomes president then I will forever have to hear the question, “Are you related to the president?”  See, the surname McKean is pronounced the same as the Senator’s surname, despite what that guy from Spinal Tap says.  Somewhere along the way it got mutilated into all sorts of spellings, from McCain to McKane to McKeen.  This happens to a lot of surnames and can make research a real pain in the butt!

As to whether I’m related to John McCain or not: I don’t know.  I haven’t bothered to check for any relationship, although I’m sure our lines meet up somewhere.  By the time you get that far back, however, does it really matter?  We’re all related in some way!

Often in our search for our ancestors we forget that we would have made very little progress if not for the help of volunteers who have spent countless hours compiling information, trekking through cemeteries, digging through dusty old records, etc.  We take a lot, but how much do we give back?

I’ll admit, I don’t do nearly as much as I could and should.  We have our own lives to live, after all.  You don’t have to compile a 500 page history of your county or document the tombstones of 100 cemeteries to help out, though.  Mary Penner offers some suggestions on we can give back to the community that has given us so much.  Check out her article on six ways to give back to the genealogy community.

Oh, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank those that put together the Mercer County, PA, Cemetery Inscriptions collection!  These people went through every cemetery in Mercer County, PA, and transcribed the tombstones.  Even the tiny cemetery where I found my gggg-grandparents.  Awesome stuff!

I was in Fairfax, VA, for Christmas and didn’t get a chance to wish everyone a happy holiday.  I’m back home and just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year while I’m still coherent enough to type!  So Happy New Year!  If you don’t hear from me for a couple of days it’s because I’m still “recovering.”

I was just reading the Genealogy Blog which referenced an article on 10 Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library and it had me thinking (scary, I know).  I have found a lot of useful information on the internet and it’s always nice to have easy access to things like census records.  When I think about it, though, I have solved more genealogical problems and roadblocks from some obscure books and maps I’ve found in my library’s small genealogy collection than I could ever hope to solve with the internet alone.  Sure, there’s plenty of scanned books available online, but it’s highly doubtful you’re going to find Uncle Bob’s 1893 History of Yankeedoodle County online.

A good example is the 16 volume Mercer County Cemetery Inscriptions books.  Our library has a set (some volumes bound with duct tape) and I was able to find the resting place of my gggg-grandparents.  It even had a hand-drawn map showing how to get there!  There’s all sorts of things like that which you won’t find online.

On the other hand, I’ll never give up the internet, either!