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Russ Herre 5/17/98 While doing my own research on the internet, I like many others stumbled into the USGenWeb Project. Seems like there were no sites for any of the counties in any state that I was researching. In November of 1996 I started trying to reach Dale S. to volunteer for Brown county NE. After what I deemed a reasonable time, I got a little grumpy with my email to Dale, unclear whether volunteers were wanted or not. I later apologized to Dale when I realized what he was really doing for the organization. I got my county, and another in Iowa, and one in Colorado, my home. Then Ron Singleton the Colorado state coordinator (along with many other things) who was a personal inspiration to me, passed away. Seems like a week later Larry S. who's wonderful email (and typing) really kept me coming back, also passed away. John Mc. took over as sc and somewhere along this time I sent him a message asking if he thought I would be able to set up Dodge county and still leave it up for adoption. With a smile in his email answer he said go for it, and Dodge was mine too. Really enjoyed the 'Powwow" days in the chat rooms with John, Barb, Bill O. and Connie. Was involved with the early talk about the archives, back when no one seemed to know what they were. Dodge county really bloomed with the help of Renee Bunck and the ENGS, but Brown was always a little slow. I set up sites for my local Genealogical society and the a page for the ENGS. As my email grew and my time didn't, I had to let a county in IA go to a new coordinator, and Renee graciously took over Dodge in NE. I thank Bill O. for acting as my senior council when I needed it. Now my focus is on Brown again, and as I get my new software and hardware working, will make improvements there. I had been doing genealogy for many years, starting with a biography of my greatgrandmother when I was in 7th grade. Got a computer for Christmas in '95 and signed up with Juno for email. Found genealogy mail lists in August of '96, and heard a lot about USGenWeb, NEGenWeb, NebrRoots, NebrHeritage, etc. Of course, being the "big mouth" that I am, everyone heard from me, too. :-) Someone (John McCoy or Bill O?) asked if I'd be willing to host Buffalo Co. But we still didn't have web access. Had 15 hours of free AOL at the end of '97, and spent them all at GenWeb and other genealogy sites. Then I bugged Jeanne Walsh, who was hosting Buffalo Co. (my home county) at that time -- I just assumed she lived in Kearney and was waiting for my requests for look-ups at the courthouse, etc. She always sweetly replied, and it wasn't until much later that I learned that not only did she not live in Kearney, she was taking care of about 7 other counties!! As soon as we decided to get permanent web access in February of 1998, I promptly (and naively) volunteered to take Buffalo Co. I didn't know much about internet, and knew absolutely nothing about HTML, but I was eager to learn, and excited to be doing Buffalo Co. Sherman Co. came in the package, too, but Randy and Jeri soon volunteered to take care of it. It was weeks before I found out that I could look at my pages in my browser without even being on-line. Consequently, my counter went up fast those first few weeks as I was trying to make changes and additions, up-loading them, checking the site, making adjustments, and uploading again. The 1891 gazetteer was the big topic of discussion when I first came on, and that was the first big project that I tackled. Again I copied tables, etc., from other counties. I had the opportunity to meet Bill W at the Historical Society when I was in Lincoln in June last summer. Meeting everyone at Meet & Greet was wonderful. My parents had been very active in the Buffalo County Historical Soc. in the 1970's. Of course, many of the members of the Hist. Soc. are also in the Gen. Soc. So I took my mom with me when I approached the Fort Kearny Gen Soc. about posting some of their compilations, etc. They hugged mom, whom they hadn't seen for a number of years, and were very open to my suggestions. In fact, they gave me permission to post anything they had published. So I have plenty to work on -- I just don't have a lot of it here yet. I'm proud to be a part of this group of EagleLarks! We (Connie and I) crossed paths on the Kansas List I believe. She has Nebraska roots and was living in Kansas at the time, and I have Kansas roots, living in Nebraska, in her home town. We corresponded and became friends. When I heard about NEBGenWeb (don't even remember how I did) I wrote to Dale and asked what it would involve, being a coordinator for a county. After several calls to me, he convinced me he could "put something up" if I would maintain it. Not knowing ANYTHING about HTML, ftp, etc., I was skeptic. I mentioned it to Connie, who was BIG TIME into doing Kansas work, and she offered to set my site up for me and maintain it until I learned, which was May, 1997. Oh, don't think I just jumped in and did everything from then on, oh contrare! Poor Connie's mailbox was full of pleas from me for help. She could spot the tiniest little things that I didn't and make my pages "go." Connie was already doing a Nebraska site--MINE, so I suggested she take one herself, and she did. She kept getting more and more involved in Nebraska, and then came Andreas. She had helped with the Cutler History of Kansas and decided we should put the Andreas History of Nebraska online. The book was not available to everyone, so Connie and I made many trips to the library, I drove to Grand Island, I think she drove to Falls City. Made "millions" of copies, sorted and mailed them to the volunteers. You talk about a time-consuming project. Then she had to proofread everything after it was done. Wonder Woman! No better name for her! Had to smile when I read Russ's note. I had forgotten Larry Swaney's typing. {giggle} We didn't realize at the time that he was suffering with cancer. He never complained. I now can actually create a page myself, and have scanned and ftp'ed pictures to my site--thanks to Connie's gentle guidance. John Mc was right on about the Heritage List. Genealogists don't want ANYTHING but genealogy on their lists and Dale gave us one we were free to use as we wanted and of course that was mainly for Trivia. We have some great stories posted on there from time to time. He had some other name for the list and I bugged him until he changed it to Nebraska Heritage. This bunch of people has become my "puter family." We have had grandchildren, weddings, the loss of parents, friends, and all of us felt the joy, and loss, and many were quick to send notes of congratulations and condolences. By the way John, I remember when Dale/Doc said he had something special for you to do but never wrote to you. You never knew we were talking on the phone about you, did you? You are right, he answers e mail when the spirit moves him...in this case it was me! But we got cha, didn't we! You did a great job, but I sure understand how it could become overwhelming. BillO...can't say enough about him. Not only do his warm fuzzies, and his wit, remind me of my dad, but my dad's name was Oliver. Bill keeps us all smiling. He still doesn't realize that if you live in the midwest that news is at 10:00. I guess we all miss Marvin. He even had his own county. "smile" I got to meet him, and I must say, you really wouldn't want to get too close to him. He smelled rather ripe! Oh, I guess some of you don't know, Dale/Doc has a beagle named Marvin. He was kinda like our mascot at the beginning. We have been a close-knit group, and I surely hope we will continue to be. Barb Our history? We don't have much of a history with this group yet, but we'll try to fill you in. We hadn't even heard of the USGenWeb project until late in 1997. {We were pretty new to the internet at that time.} A member of our genealogy group - here in Custer County - mentioned the pages to us, so of course we had to take a look. That was the same time that we found our local Historical Society also had a web page. We were pretty impressed with what we found. We really liked the looks of the Historical Society page. {No prejudice here.} In December 1997 Mary Landkamer - who runs the Historical Society here - asked us if we'd be interested in running the Historical Society web page and the Custer County NEGenWeb page. She said they needed to be adopted and thought we'd do a good job with them. Where she got that idea, we have no idea. We got in touch with Connie and were told that we could do the CCHS page, but that Lee had already agreed to take on Custer County. Jeri agreed to come on board as an assistant to Lee for the Custer County page and we took on the CCHS page. We sort of 'lurked' around in the shadows and kept up with all the banter of this group for quite awhile. Finally we decided that we'd really like to join in the fun and would volunteer when a county came up for adoption. Clay and Webster were the next ones up - so we wrote to Connie right away. It wasn't long and we knew we'd be taking over those two counties. We were so excited! About that same time, Lee wrote and asked if we'd like to take over Custer County. The answer was a big YES. Then Sherman came our way, too. Custer County is a perfect fit for us since we live here. {For those we don't know, we live in Broken Bow.} Sherman is also really good for us because it's right next door to Custer. We both have deep roots in Custer County and Jeri has quite a few roots in Sherman County also. Randy has just a few roots in Clay county. Anyway, we ended up taking on all four counties at just about the same time. We have loved every single minute we've been involved with this project. And we keep getting in deeper and deeper. Last spring we volunteered to do all of the cemeteries in Custer County for the Tombstone Project. This was before we knew that there were 71 cemeteries in Custer County. Word of caution here. Always make sure you know what you're volunteering for before you volunteer. Luckily, a lot of those 71 cemeteries were very small and didn't take so terribly long to walk. We spent our whole summer walking cemeteries, though. And still didn't get quite done. We did manage to get 66 cemeteries done {plus a few in some neighboring counties} and are planning to finish the other 5 - the biggest ones, by the way - once the weather starts warming up again. {Then we're going to do the cemeteries in Sherman county after that.} We've got all 66 cemeteries listed on the web page, along with the tombstone inscriptions, of course, and even printed the information and put it into booklet form. Actually, it's in three booklets. We donated a copy of each booklet to the CCHS and have a copy of each here. We're had some wonderful compliments from people who were thrilled to find what they were looking for in either the booklets or on the web page. It's just great to be able to help others with their research. We've also volunteered to do the census transcriptions for Custer County. So far we haven't even started that project yet. But we will get it going one of these days. And we have plans for a lot more. It's doubtful that we'll ever run out of stuff to do. We have access to much more information for the Custer and Sherman pages than we do for the Clay and Webster pages, but we keep trying to find information for them, too. That's about it for our story. We're still pretty new to this group - it hasn't been quite a year yet - and we have a long way to go before we can catch up with some of the wonderful pages out there, but we're working on it. We're learning more and more about all of you and have enjoyed getting to know you all - even though we keep kind of quiet. We still haven't figured out who everyone is and sometimes wonder where you all live and stuff like that, but we do feel like we're getting to know some of you. It's a pretty great bunch of people. I am pretty excited to be here. It's good that everyone is so nice about answering questions, because I'm sure I will have *LOTS* of them!!! I've been interested in genealogy for a long time but only got started actually digging around about 2 years ago when my grandmother gave me a little handwritten family tree written out on a piece of notepaper. I've been having fun ever since. I *love* mysteries and genealogy is the ultimate mystery. As soon as you solve one, there's yet another puzzle! As to history...well, like most of you, dates slip right out of my head, but I remember typing in Genealogy in a search engine and somehow getting connected with the early formation of NEGenWeb when Dale was steering the helm, and all the changes that have come since....I adopted Box Butte because I live here (I know...one of the lucky ones) and then later taking on Kimball because it was "Close" and in the Western part of the state... I have been blessed with two of the nicest and finest look up people I could ask for. Both of which are genealogists (life long standings) and also presidents of the local Genealogy groups in their respective counties, so if there is anything written, they can and do find it. Also like the rest of you, learning HTML is not something I have relished, been good at, or even enjoyed, but it is something that seems to sift into your mind, slowly if you are reticent like me, but it gets there....so page creation, altho I tend to leave things on the simple side, is now something I am not to terribly afraid of. Since I have been doing research in various states, I am always impressed with the amount of closeness and willingness to help we have shown to each other and those researchers who are using our sites. Not every state can say what we can in that department! We welcome new people to our ranks and make them feel as comfortable as we possibly can and help is just an e-mail away. A very comforting thought when you are up at 3 a.m. trying to make a page do what you want it to.... Eaglarks - one and all....(by the way, In Nebraska - if you cross an eagle with a meadowlark - you get a very large bird with grace and style and a happy attitude - therefore they sing while they work.) I have seen the changes, cried over the heart felt tragedies we have shared, and rejoiced at the funny stories and new grandchildren we have also shared. Typed a good many hours on this keyboard for the Andreas project and slowly learned what people want to see on the net. Now I am teaching internet genealogy classes and the first place I steer people is to the NEGenWeb to show them what it SHOULD be like in other states. I also encourage them to volunteer if they want to do research in another state or location that is lacking. No better way to help than to share what you know - right????? On a rather funny note - a local lady happened to mention that she was really upset with my site because she couldn't find the information that she needed. She didn't know where I was getting my information but obviously it was incomplete, or possibly wrong. She was telling this to the county look up person! After the comment was made there were a few minutes of explanation about who was doing the look ups, and what information was available, THEN the suggestion was made to this person that maybe she could HELP with look ups and putting information on line...I received a very nice thank you letter from this person in my e-mail just last Tuesday, stating that she was very pleased with what I have available and if there is anything she can do to help, please let her know. 2 hours later she had a book to start typing an index of! Ask and ye shall receive!!!!! :-) I am so new at this cc thing, and still learning. But, because I live in Hall County, I just couldn't see it going un-adopted any longer. I had first visited the USGenWeb Project in March of '97. After a quick glance at the NEGenWeb I noticed that Hall was up for "adoption." (For a while Judy Svoboda had shown an interest in Hall but in writing to her I learned she had time retraints and could not take it.) Because of family interest in Buffalo County I wrote to Jeanne Walsh to offer help. Well.....the "gentle pursuader" had me convinced I wanted to take Hall, then John McCoy, (yes, him again), did some more pursuading and told me I could do it, and, well.....here I am. That was, I think, about July of 97. The support is great and you are all so helpful. I can't wait to meet you all in August, and put faces with the messages. |