Monday, June 29, 2009

Blacksheep Sunday - The USGenWeb Project

The USGenWeb Project has been around for more than 12 years. It is a project that encompasses all fifty States, and the District of Columbia.

The premise of the Project is to have a site established for each county level jurisdiction, and be a resource for FREE genealogy data, either by on-site content, or by links and references.

It is a volunteer driven project, with over 2,000 volunteer 'coordinators' who maintain sites in 3,141 jurisdictions. There is always a county somewhere that needs a volunteer or two to make it work.

What it takes to be a 'member' is a willingness to spend time managing a website for a county, usually one you have resources in, or have ancestors connected to.

The structure is similar to real life, there are State groups who manage the county localities, within their state. All states link to the national web page, located at http://usgenweb.org/

In addition to localities, it is sometimes found that special topics cross county and state lines, therefor the USGenWeb has established several "Special Projects" to highlight these areas.

If you have some time and want to get more involved in making a difference in your localities of interests, please visit the website and look around.