My Start On The TxGenWeb
Genealogy Project

Believe it or not I've been playing around with computers since 1982 and had never gotten on the Internet until September 17, 1996. I've bought five computers since '82' and the last three came with all that neat Internet software already loaded. I've probably gotten enough free offers through the mail to reformat the disks and backup my 1.6 gig harddrive and enough free CD's to decorate my whole front yard for Christmas.  Why did I wait so long to even try the Internet? Because this isn't just another pretty face your looking at. I have enough sense to know by now that I must have a addictive personality. I've been hooked on genealogy, coffee & cigarettes for years now. And guess what?? I've got a new vice!! It didn't take me more than an hour or two to figure out that the first thing I was going to have to do was get a dedicated phone line!! Or, I could have opted to sleep days and surf at night while everybody else slept. As it has turned out I got the phone line and I still stay up all night. I really need to think a starting a new self-help group...W.A.I.T. (Webbers' Anonymous In Texas). We could hold our meetings on the Web!! Don't want anybody going through withdrawal too fast. That's probably a real good name for it because everytime anybody around here wants anything I just tell them "WAIT, a minute, I'm looking at something."

Back to the TxGenWeb Project! That first night I felt like a virgin all over again. I 'd click on one of those highlighted words and off I'd go to someplace new. Some of those places even made me blush sitting right here alone in my little office. Then I saw something highlighted, called a "Web-Crawler." Thought I might find out something about all those bugs that keep eating my flowers. Well, it wasn't about insects. It prompted me to type in a word, so I just typed in Texas. I thought that was a safe subject. Up popped a screen full of more highlighted words and every sentence had the word Texas in it!! I visited a few and then I saw one called "TxGenWeb." Low and behold it was all about Texas counties, maps, and stuff.  Then I noticed they were begging people to ADOPT!! Well, let me tell you, my kids are about grown and I don't want any pets around here digging up my flowers. But I kept on reading and found out that they wanted people to adopt whole counties. Can you believe that!!

I clicked on some words inviting me to see which of them darling little counties was left un-adopted. Then the shock came. Up popped this pretty blue map with some of the counties marked in red. It seems that nobody wanted the counties where most of my ancestors came and settled in Texas. WHY? Maybe there was something I hadn't uncovered about those counties when I was digging around those old cemeteries and court houses. Anyway, I thought I can't let this go on for one more minute. Everything deserves a home. Even counties! So I tried to figure out how this E-Mail business works. I jotted of a message to Mike Basham, the fellow who is taking care of those little darlings until someone comes along and gives them a home. I told him I would take a whole litter. (All the counties that were in the original Astasosito District.)

I went to bed (at 3:am) with the feeling that I'd done a good thing. The next day I started trying to figure just exactly what this new parenthood entailed. Then I found I was going to have to learn a whole new language, if I was going to adopt. I spent the next couple of days wandering around this Internet thing gathering information on html, cause that's what it said I had to learn. By this time, I was really surfing pretty good. Really getting the hang of things. I waited a couple of days, then I thought to myself, "You ain't heard from that fellow, maybe they are running a FBI check to see if your good enough to adopt!" Well, back to the E-Mail thing. No wonder, for some reason it was returned unopened. Some kind of error. Maybe I didn't put enough postage. I just kept thinking about them poor little counties with no home. I jotted off another message.

Then I started fixing up rooms (pages) for Liberty, Chambers, Hardin, Tyler, and San Jacinto counties. Later that day, I checked my mail, and again there was an error. I spent the whole next day reinstalling software, trying to get the mail to work. Even mailed myself a couple of messages from different places on the net. Some worked and some didn't. I tried to find a phone number for Mike, but even the "Great White Pages Hunter" didn't have it. I went back to the TxGenWeb page to see if Mike had a 'Snail' address. While I was there I thought I'd just check on those counties. WOW! Looked like somebody took pity on the some of the very ones that I had fixed a place for. At least they had a home!! Well that just meant I'd have to change the names above the doors to the rooms. So, I started fixing up a place for Jefferson, Orange, Jasper and Newton counties. I even went so far as getting in touch with the new parents of Liberty, Chambers, Hardin, Tyler & San Jacinto counties, Carla & Billy Clifton. I just had to make sure they were going to be good parents. I think they are going to be great parents and great neighbors. Another E-Mail error. Now, I'm getting kind of frustrated. Maybe I wasn't meant to adopt these counties. One more day of uninstalling and reinstalling software. Another trip back to the TxGenWeb page. Well, look here, somebody got Jefferson and Orange counties. Had to get a relay rider from way up north, Vance Wingfield, to pong a messege to Mike for me.  Mike then got me a message to try again so I sent another E-Mail that I still wanted Jasper and Newton and I'd even take Sabine.

Finally!! Mike informed me that  I had been approved to adopt those counties. I just had to go back to the TxGenWeb page to see how they looked in red. Then I saw it!! The only blue area left in the Southeast Texas area was San Augustine County and you guessed it, I E-Mailed Mike to give me that little one too. At least now I knew who was going to be in which rooms.

Just like it is when all newborns arrive home for the first time things have been hectic around here and I've still got a lot of fixing-up to do. I sure don't have any of that empty-nest syndrome stuff going on around here now.

I can only imagine what this project will be like in five years. Having been a past editor of "Yellowed Pages," quarterly for the SouthEast Texas Genealogical & Historical Society, I know that the major problem for a editor is material to print. When I first started, it was really "cut & paste" and I don't mean with a computer either. There are only so many marriage records and cemetery records, tax rolls, census records, etc. for each county. Sometimes some individual has already published (copyrighted) those major records. With the advent of the Internet, I can already see the potential in only a few short weeks. The UsGenWeb Project worldwide should not be viewed as a threat to any Genealogical Society. It can be a EVERYBODY WINS! situation:

Example: A fellow lives in CA but his ancestors were in SouthEast Texas about 1846. He posted a query to Jefferson Co., TX and happens to mention he has the family Bible. County coordinator E-Mails him for permission to print it in the County Page and the local Genealogical Society's quarterly. EVERYBODY WINS! Mr. CA happens to see a offering of Jefferson County Marriage Records that the Society has published and a Family History, published locally, that he might not have even known about if he hadn't seen it on the TxGenWeb county page. EVERYBODY WINS! Mr. CA then decides to join the local Society and buys several back issues of  the quarterlies. EVERYBODY WINS. Several months later Mr. CA sends his GEDCOM file for storage and for others to download. He's got a picture of his Civil War ancestor in uniform. Instant cover for society quarterly!! Then Jefferson Co. coordinator links to Mr. CA's Home Genealogy Page where he has other bits & pieces of material which relate back to  Jefferson County. EVERYBODY WINS!!!!

There should be a working relationship with each and every Society. Remember, societies are people. Most family researchers, who have been at it for very long, belong to one or more societies in their counties of origin. And most family researchers, just like myself, have tons of bits & pieces that we've been gathering and are going to publish SOMEDAY. I may die before someday comes, but I can publish it, link it, or let some other county publish it on the Internet today and it won't cost me a dime, and hurricanes, fire, floods, or tornado's can't destroy it. Now, I've got a lot of time and money invested in all those little tidbits I've gathered and all this fancy computer equipment, but I'll never get over 150 books written on 150 families. There will always be a demand for printed materials. I don't think every family researcher in the world is ever going to have a computer. Maybe some of the obituaries I have or some of the family letters will someday be published (in book form) by me or maybe someone else. My grandmother would still be delighted. Source materials which relate to more than one county can be linked by all the counties. (Example: obituary of John Doe, born in Tyler Co, lived in Jasper Co., died in Liberty Co. can be linked to all three counties.) The Collier Family letters that made the wagon train trip from Georgia to Texas can now make a trip around the world.

Another good thing about the electronic media is it can be updated at a moments notice. I only wonder how many times a family history was sent to the printer only to have a very important part arrive in the mail two weeks later. Or, you just heard about a wonderful book about your family, but it's been out of print for twenty years, and it was only distributed among the family. Now, I can just keep adding to and correcting my material for as long as I can crawl to my computer. "Hope I don't get so busy that I forget to pay the electric or phone bill."

You know how children don't stay little very long. Well, if the UsGenWeb Project doesn't get way-laid or sidetracked, I think it can be the moving factor in more and more people getting involved in the wonderful pastime (or fulltime) that I have enjoyed so very much. Even when I had to put it on a back-burner for a few years, it was just waiting for me to pick it up again and the thrill is as great as ever, if not greater, and a lot easier to do from my little "Web Home."

Barbara Yancey Dore (aka) RootsLady (E-Mail:RootsLady@msn.com)
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