Digital vs Offline Genealogy

[bjh]

Originally Posted by JT-3

Yes indeed, many different types of military records are on Fold3.com. Still, holding the genuine record in my (gloved) hands at the Natl Archives was 10x more amazing.

Isn't fold3 a paid website? If Nara or the feds do similar things, they'll be publicly available.

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by bjh

Depends. If its opinions, could well be wrong. But there are millions of factual records like the census and BMD data.

Agreed, clearly there is a difference between copies of official documents, old newspapers and directories vs someone's published family tree (especially if it is without sources.)

Why would I pass up NYS state census data, for example, that is available on the internet as copies of the original records just because I am unable to travel to a place that has the paper records. Makes no sense. I live in Europe, I would have virtually no family trees if I had not been able to access U.S. and Canadian records on the internet.

[nj185]

Originally Posted by cjo7007

What did you need to do to get this done? How did you go about it?

As in most anything, the key was connections. Without having someone with a certain amount of 'push' get interested in it, it would have lingered forever.........

We pooled a bunch of resources[people] who approached the history of the area from different angles. All were brought together by an interest in genealogy, but came with different backgrounds: geology, IT, architecture, historian, tourism, local business people, etc.

Putting together a technical proposal - which changed and became less expensive over the years - was not the difficult part. Putting together people to do the physical work was also not difficult. What was really difficult was convincing the government that it was in their interest to do this, and overcoming their possessiveness of the physical records. Kind of a conundrum - they weren't especially interested in having this done. They didn't particularly have the resources to do anything more than house them and provide on-scene access to those in 'touchable' condition, but they didn't want anyone else to 'take over' either. Politics always plays a part.

The final accepted proposal contained technical details of course, but more important it provided financial plans for future sustainability and even profitability going forward. It demonstrated positive effects on 'intangibles' like regional leadership, creating a model for the region, more historical tourism, creating ties with people who trace their history to the area which has unexpected benefits. Allowing more books etc to be written on the region as academics have easier access to records. It demonstrated positives from other plans put in place elsewhere. It included some work I'd done of particular interest to some of the decision-makers, demonstrating the intriguing results of using comprehensive records, not just those filmed by the LDS[publicly available and bringing them no direct income]. It pointed out how financing for other projects - architectural preservation, archaeological projects - was seeded by increased awareness.

The bottom line is to answer in as many ways possible the "What's in it for me?" question for local authorities, and demonstrate the benefits of what they perceive as giving up some control over what they see as their property.

On a personal note, it seems to me that for many smaller countries or entities, you have a choice. Go for something like this and maintain some control over the long run; or get a 1 time payout from a business like Ancestry and let them do the work, and control your written national heritage; or do nothing and let stuff moulder away over time.

[maus]

Mine is over 90% online. Luckily a persistent great-great uncle of mine had done lots of genealogy work about 30-50 years ago. Some of his research papers ended up saved online copied from other distant relatives. Basically my online finds were in accordance with most of his, so some of his very valuable research indirectly helped me go back and confirm about 8 or 9 generations. I had added a few of his family-correspondence letters online as well as documentation of what he knew first-hand. My great-great uncle had worked for the railroads and was particularly interested in ancestors who were in that line of work. He was able to locate this on past census data and add more personal details about some distant family members. Maybe in time, some of my distant relatives will find his letters on Ancestry.com and enjoy them. I am grateful he was very interested in this subject. I remember he loved history a lot as well and enjoyed traveling.

Having someone in your family who had done extensive research really jumpstarts someone who is just starting out. I recall in one of his letters it said it took him about 2 weeks to order 1860 census data back in 1977 from a State source. That example alone just goes to show you how much easier it is now to access this info from your home computer than it was in the pre-Internet days.

I have yet to go to the Archives in my area. Maybe when I have more time and funds, I can take some time to do that.

[in_newengland]

As others have said a lot of it was happy connections with online "cousins" and they had already done it manually pre-internet.

At the time it was done, I could do none of my UK ancestry and luckily it was handed to me. Trying to pursue where one of them left off--no wonder he left off--I'm getting nowhere online.

On the US side, it's been extremely simple as they were all New Englanders. I took what was handed over and then just used Google and found entire full text books on little New England towns. Almost every town has its little old fashioned history book that some townie wrote in the late 1800s or early 1900s. I verify with online vital records.

The main part I have done in person was to find information on my recent UK side. Going to the National Archives was thrilling, going to the Massachusetts Archives was the same. I could have moved right in!

I traveled around in CT to do research in person but never found anything. That's why THAT cousin dropped it, I can see that now. But the fun and thrill of the in person research beats the online version by 100:1. Another thing--you learn so much more by doing it in person. At the very least I do try to visit the places at some time to soak up local color and even information that gets lost when it's online.